Translation and Validation of a Spanish version of the Kolcaba's General Comfort Questionnaire in Hospital Nurses

Background: The General Comfort Questionnaire (GCQ), developed by Katharine Kolcaba, has not been validated in any speaking Spanish country, subsequent validation is necessary. Objectives: To translate the General Comfort Questionnaire (GCQ) in English language into Spanish (S-GCQ) and to examine the psychometric properties of the S-GCQ. Method: Validation was performed on a randomly selected sample of 600 nurses from eight Valencia and Murcia public hospitals. This study analyzed the psychometric properties and factor structure using translation and back-translation of the original version, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Internal Consistency (IC) and Multidimensional Scaling (MS). Results: The instrument showed excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.90), good item-total correlation, and a coefficient of determination of 0.94 in multidimensional scaling. Factor analysis supported the twelve-factor structure reflecting dimensions of the original instrument. Discussion: The S-GCQ is a valid and reliable Spanish-language assessment instrument to measure nurses’ comfort. It would be appropriate to validate the S-GCQ instrument for assessing nurses’ comfort in Primary Care and other health settings.