Assessing cardiac prodromal symptom and psychometric properties of two prodromal symptom screening scales in patient with acute coronary syndrome at Ardabil Imam Khomeini hospital

Introduction: Prodromal symptoms are warning symptoms of an impending Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). The present study was conducted for (1) developing Acute Coronary Syndromes-Screening Scale (ACS-SS); (2) investigating the psychometric properties of the Prodromal Symptoms-Screening Scale (PS-SS), and ACS-SS, and (3) the frequency of prodromal symptoms. Methods: In the first step, to determine the ACS-SS items, a literature review was performed and 70 prodromal symptoms were extracted. The content validity and opinions of the researchers were used to reducing the number of the items. One hundred and thirteen patients diagnosed with ACS completed the 22 derived items and using the Exploratory Factor Analysis, items and dimensions of the ACS-SS were determined. In the second step, after the translation of PS-SS, the final version of the PS-SS, ACS-SS and the checklist of 70 items for investigating the psychometric properties and the frequency of prodromal symptoms were completed by196 patients with ACS and 205 healthy people in terms of cardiac status. Reliability and validity of the scales were assessed, and the PS-SS sensitivity and specificity was calculated. Results: Chest pain (61.7%), diaphoresis (55.6%), and anxiety (50.5%) were the most common prodromal symptoms in this study. In determining the factor structure of both instruments, goodness of fit indices including IFI, CFI, and GFI (above 0.9), and internal consistency confirmed the PS-SS single-factor and the ACS-SS four-factor structures. Considering the higher scores in the patient group than in the healthy group (p