Translation to Serbian, cultural adaptation, reliability testing and validation of the questionnaire estimating the fear of injections

Background/Aim. The two-part questionnaire called Injection Phobia Scale (IPS)-Anxiety and IPS-Avoidance represents one of the most commonly used questionnaires for assessing the fear of injections. The aim of the present study was to translate and culturally adapt this questionnaire from English into Serbian as well as to assess reliability and validity of the translation. Methods. The translation and cultural adaptation of the IPS–Anxiety and IPS–Avoidance was performed in accordance with the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) guidelines. Reliability testing, factor analysis and validation of Serbian translation of IPS-Anxiety and IPS-Avoidance were carried out on a sample of 485 students of pharmacy, or medicine at the University of Kragujevac, Serbia. Results. Serbian translation of IPS-Anxiety and IPSAvoidance demonstrated high internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.934 for IPS-Anxiety and 0.911 for IPS-Avoidance. Factor analysis of IPS-Anxiety showed that there are two domains, which we have called as Direct Experience (9 items) and Indirect Experience (9 items); factor analysis of IPS-Avoidance also pointed out on two domains referring to direct and indirect fear of injections. Female students scored higher on the scale showing more extensive injection phobia than male students. It is also interesting that students of pharmacy have higher level of injection phobia than students of medicine, and those students of the fifth year of study feel more fear of injections than students from the first four years. Conclusion. Serbian translation of IPS-Anxiety and IPS-Avoidance showed good psychometric properties on population consisted of students medicine and pharmacy. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 175007

Analysis of cervical resistance during continuous controllable balloon dilatation: controlled clinical and experimental study

BACKGROUND: Hydraulic dilatation is a novel method of cervical dilatation that is based on continuous controllable dilatation (CCBD) by the pumping of fluid into the balloon extension of the system. The main advantage of this procedure is that it allows control of and insight into the process of cervical dilatation. METHODS: For the purposes of our research, we created a new and upgraded system for CCBD which consists of a programmed hydrostatic pump connected to a balloon extension. With regard to our aim to precisely measure and determine the location of the cervical resistance, we placed two pressure-measuring films, one on the top and one on the bottom of the balloon extension. This study included 42 patients in whom cervical resistance was measured before suction curettage. RESULTS: Cervical dilatation and measurement of cervical resistance were successful in all patients. The analysis of the pressure-measuring films showed that the points of highest resistance were located in the zone of the internal cervical os and that these values were much higher than those in the zone of the external cervical os (0.402 versus 0.264 MPa at the upper pressure-sensitive film; 0.387 versus 0.243 MPa at the lower pressure-sensitive film). This study also showed that an increase in cervical resistance in the zone of the internal cervical os was followed by an increase in cervical resistance in the zone of the external cervical os. CONCLUSIONS: During CCBD, the internal cervical os is the centre of cervical resistance, and the values do not decline with the number of miscarriages or the number of previous births. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN Registry identifier: ISRCTN30949871. Date of registration: 13 May 2015. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13063-015-1003-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users