BACKGROUND: Several factors contribute to the complexity of pharmacotherapeutic regimens, like the total number of medications to be taken, the number of dosage units to take at a time, dosage frequency, as well as specific directions concerning the administration. The Medication Regimen Complexity Index (MRCI) is a validated instrument developed in English for the measurement of the complexity of a given pharmacotherapeutic regimen. OBJECTIVES: Translation of the MRCI into German and evaluation of the translated instrument (MRCI-D) in order to make it more easily accessible for use in German practice and research. METHODS: The process of validation included the translation of the English version to German, back-translation into English, comparison of the back-translated and the original versions, pre-tests, and pilot-testing of the German version by three raters using 20 medication regimens for inpatients. The subsequent psychometric evaluation included the calculation of inter-rater and test-retest reliability, as well as the assessment of convergent validity. RESULTS: The number of medications correlated highly and statistically significantly with the MRCI-D score (0.91, P < 0.001), indicating sufficient convergent validity of the instrument. Both inter-rater and test-retest reliability were very high (intraclass correlation coefficients above 0.80 in all cases). CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that the German version of the MRCI reflects the complexity of therapeutic regimens with similar validity and reliability as the established English version. Thus, it may be a valuable tool to analyse therapeutic regimens in both clinical practice and science.
BACKGROUND: Several factors contribute to the complexity of pharmacotherapeutic regimens, like the total number of medications to be taken, the number of dosage units to take at a time, dosage frequency, as well as specific directions concerning the administration. The Medication Regimen Complexity Index (MRCI) is a validated instrument developed in English for the measurement of the complexity of a given pharmacotherapeutic regimen. OBJECTIVES: Translation of the MRCI into German and evaluation of the translated instrument (MRCI-D) in order to make it more easily accessible for use in German practice and research. METHODS: The process of validation included the translation of the English version to German, back-translation into English, comparison of the back-translated and the original versions, pre-tests, and pilot-testing of the German version by three raters using 20 medication regimens for inpatients. The subsequent psychometric evaluation included the calculation of inter-rater and test-retest reliability, as well as the assessment of convergent validity. RESULTS: The number of medications correlated highly and statistically significantly with the MRCI-D score (0.91, P < 0.001), indicating sufficient convergent validity of the instrument. Both inter-rater and test-retest reliability were very high (intraclass correlation coefficients above 0.80 in all cases). CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that the German version of the MRCI reflects the complexity of therapeutic regimens with similar validity and reliability as the established English version. Thus, it may be a valuable tool to analyse therapeutic regimens in both clinical practice and science.
Authors: Carolina Mosca; Margarida M Castel-Branco; Ana C Ribeiro-Rama; Margarida M Caramona; Fernando Fernandez-Llimos; Isabel V Figueiredo Journal: Int J Clin Pharm Date: 2013-12-01
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