Adaptación cultural y validación del contenido de la escala de evaluación del riesgo de infección en rdultos RAC (Rodríguez-Almeida-Cañon) para portugueses en Portugal

Introduction: Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) have been a concern in the healthcare field due to their impact on public health. Therefore, risk stratification of hospitalized populations, using validated instruments, is essential for implementing effective measures to prevent HAIs. Objective: Aimed to culturally adapt the RAC Infection Risk Assessment Scale (Rodríguez-Almeida-Cañon) for adult patients. This article describes the following steps: preparation, preliminary translation, back-translation, review of the back-translation, and content validation through a panel of experts. Methods: After translating and back-translating the scale using bilingual translators, content validation was carried out through a Delphi panel involving 11 experts in the field of HAIs, of both sexes, with clinical experience and/or previous involvement in infection prevention and control research. The items of the RAC scale were evaluated for clarity, theoretical relevance, and practical pertinence. La validez de contenido se determinó mediante el índice de validez de contenido. Results: Based on the feedback from the experts, there was consensus to retain the 15 assessment items, grouped into intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The Portuguese (Portugal) version of the scale achieved a 95% agreement level. Conclusion: The RAC scale proved to be valid in terms of content. The use of infection risk assessment instruments is essential for infection prevention, contributing to improved quality of care and guiding healthcare professionals’ interventions. To ensure the validity of the scale, a psychometric validation will also be conducted.