Preoperative fasting is routinely performed to prevent anaesthesia-related pulmonary aspiration. To capture patients’ experiences with preoperative fasting, a 13-item questionnaire was developed and validated using Rasch analysis and shortened to 6 items. This extension study aims to assess this questionnaire's ability to discriminate between participants with a short versus long duration of fasting and early versus late day surgery.
DesignSingle-centred cross-sectional study.
ParticipantsSubjects were recruited via consecutive sampling of cataract patients on surgery day at Kensington Eye Institute in Toronto from February to December 2019.
MethodsA validated preoperative fasting questionnaire was administered. Discriminative ability was assessed by comparing responses in patients scheduled for surgery in the morning (8:00 am–12:00 pm) versus afternoon (12:00 pm–3:30 pm) and fasting for short (≤8 hours) versus long (>8 hours) duration. Diagnostic ability of the 6-item questionnaire relative to the 13-item questionnaire was assessed with receiver operating characteristics curve analysis.
ResultsA total of 164 patients (mean age 70.8 ± 10.0 years; 57% female) were included. Total scores of patients having surgery in the morning were greater (i.e., less fasting-related burden) than in the afternoon (p = 0.04). There was no significant difference in scores between patients fasting for a short versus long duration (p > 0.05). Receiver operating characteristics curve analysis showed excellent diagnostic ability of the 6-item questionnaire relative to the 13-item version (area under the curve = 0.964).
ConclusionThe 6-item questionnaire for fasting-related burden has excellent discriminative ability between early versus late surgery patients. The time fasting while awake may be a more relevant predictor of fasting-related burden relative to the total duration of fasting.
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