Validation study of The Color Circle Pain Scale in the postoperative pain assessment among adult patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery

This study was carried out as methodological research to test the validity of the "Color-Circle Pain Scale" in the postoperative pain assessment of adult patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery. The study was carried out at Gazi University Health Research and Application Center between November 2021 and April 2022. The sample of the study consisted of 152 patients who underwent cardiothoracic surgery. In the study, "Patient Descriptive Information Form", "Colour-Circle Pain Scale", "Wong Baker Pain Scale" and "Visual Pain Scale" were used to collect data from the patients. In the adaptation of the scale to Turkish society, the orange and brown colors, reflecting the intensity of pain in Turkish population, were included in the scale by taking the opinions of experts. Content and criterion validity methods were used to test the validity of the scale. To provide the content validity, the content validity index of all items was calculated and the values were found acceptable. The Wong-Baker Pain Scale and Visual Pain Scale were used to test criterion validity and evaluate agreement in the study. A strong positive correlation and perfect agreement were found between the scales. The Color-Circle Pain Scale has been accepted as a valid measurement tool in the assessment of postoperative pain in adult patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery in the Turkish population. Keywords: Cardiothoracic surgery, pain assessment, pain scale, postoperative pain, validity, nursing care