Crosscultural adaptation and reliability testing of the Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Concerns questionnaire to optimize the care of Polish patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators.

Background: Implantable cardioverter‑defibrillator (ICD) placement has now become a standard procedure in patients with ventricular arrhythmias. The primary task of an ICD is to recognize and immediately interrupt life‑threatening ventricular arrhythmia via an intracardiac electrical discharge, known as a shock.

Aims: The aim of this study was to adapt and test the reliability of the Polish version of the Implantable Cardioverter‑Defibrillator Concerns (ICDC) questionnaire, an instrument used to determine the concerns of patients with ICDs.

Methods: Standard guidelines were applied with regard to the translation and cultural adaptation of the English version of the ICDC questionnaire in Poland. The study included 129 Polish patients with ICDs, including 28 women, at a mean (SD) age of 66.24 (12.94) years. The Cronbach α was calculated to analyze the internal consistency of the ICDC questionnaire.

Results: The mean ICDC score for overall concerns was 36.63 (18.56); 9.19 (5.93) for factor 1 assessing the perceived limitations, and 9.72 (5.61) for factor 2 assessing device‑specific concerns. The Cronbach α reliability coefficients ranged from 0.9619 to 0.9647, after each questionnaire item was deleted. The Cronbach α that characterized the internal consistency of the entire questionnaire was 0.96.

Conclusion: The Polish adaptation of the ICDC questionnaire proved to be a useful and quick tool to assess patients' concerns after ICD placement. Its use is recommended in the evaluation of all patients after device implantation in order to optimize therapy.