Review of the literature on constipation to enable development of a constipation risk assessment scale

Establishing reliability and validity of a constipation risk assessment scale

“…The literature review formed the basis for this process and the developmental stage presented CRAS as the end product (Richmond and Wright, 2004). The tool exhibited high stability, equivalence and an acceptable internal consistency, which collectively demonstrated the reliability of the instrument.…”

“…While CRAS was developed as a complete and inclusive risk assessment tool for constipation, which is potentially generalisable to the general population (Richmond and Wright, 2004), this research has only validated the tool for use on adult oncology patients receiving cancer treatment.…”

“…In a previous publication (Richmond and Wright, 2004), the case was presented for the development of a constipation risk assessment scale (CRAS). This instrument aimed to provide an objective method to enable health professionals to identify those individuals at risk for constipation, so that interventions could be concentrated towards those deemed 'at risk' with the aim of preventing the condition becoming established.…”

“…This instrument aimed to provide an objective method to enable health professionals to identify those individuals at risk for constipation, so that interventions could be concentrated towards those deemed 'at risk' with the aim of preventing the condition becoming established. Richmond and Wright (2004) went on to review the literature to extract independent risk factors for constipation. In a subsequent publication Richmond and Wright (2005) organised and scored these research validated risk factors into a constipation risk assessment tool.…”

“…1) outlines the various components of the study. Steps 1-3 have already been performed (Richmond and Wright, 2004), as have steps 4-6 ( Richmond and Wright, 2005). This paper will describe and explain steps 7-9.…”