Adapta？？o cultural e propriedades psicométricas da vers？o portuguesa da escala Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia

the scales developed for pain assessment in non-communicative elderly persons have not been sufficiently tested to ensure their validity and reliability. the aim of this study was to culturally adapt to portuguese the painad scale and to assess its psychometric properties with elderly patients (with or without dementia) who are hospitalized with medical and/orsurgical conditions. this descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out with panels and a simultaneous and independent application of the scale with 99 patients who were both accidentally selected. the process of cultural validation was easily obtained, in spite of the need to generate a consensus regarding the terms: ？frightened？, ？facial grimacing？, ？knees pulled up？ and ？moaning？. analysis of the main components revealed a factor with an explained variance of 61,09%. internal consistency calculated by cronbach’s alpha equaled 0,84. the level of concordance varied between a value of kappa ranged from 0,49 to 0,78. the interclass correlation coefficient was 0,89. the portuguese version of the painad scale, when used with hospitalized elderly patients (with or without dementia) and with a medical and/or surgical condition reveals validity and reliability. however, this scale should be used by healthcare professionals with specific training in its application.