Attitudes towards death and dying among intensive care professionals: A cross-sectional design evaluating culture-related differential item functioning of the frommelt attitudes toward care of the dying instrument

ObjectiveThe objective is to examine whether one of the most used instruments for measuring attitudes towards caring dying patients, Frommelt Attitude Toward Care Dying (FATCOD-B) instrument, has same meaning across different societal contexts, as exemplified by Swedish and Saudi Arabian intensive care professionals.MethodsA cross-sectional design 30-item FATCOD-B questionnaire. It was distributed professionals from Sweden Arabia, generating a total sample 227 participants. Ordinal logistic regression models were differential item functioning (DIF) each item.ResultsUp 12 30 items found have significant DIF values related to: (a) professionals, (b) registered nurses (RNs), (c) RNs’ levels experience (d) RNs other in Arabia.ConclusionsThe results indicate that FATCOD should be cautiously when comparing death healthcare contexts.