BackgroundsReports of increasing incidence rates of delirium in critically ill children are reason for concern. We evaluated the measurement properties of the pediatric delirium component (PD-scale) of the Sophia Observation Withdrawal Symptoms scale Pediatric Delirium scale (SOS-PD scale).MethodsIn a multicenter prospective observational study in four Dutch pediatric ICUs (PICUs), patients aged ≥ 3 months and admitted for ≥ 48 h were assessed with the PD-scale thrice daily. Criterion validity was assessed: if the PD-scale score was ≥ 4, a child psychiatrist clinically assessed the presence or absence of PD according to the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM)-IV. In addition, the child psychiatrist assessed a randomly selected group to establish the false-negative rate. The construct validity was assessed by calculating the Pearson coefficient (rp) for correlation between the PD-scale and Cornell Assessment Pediatric Delirium (CAP-D) scores. Interrater reliability was determined by comparing paired nurse-researcher PD-scale assessments and calculating the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).ResultsFour hundred eighty-five patients with a median age of 27.0 months (IQR 8–102) were included, of whom 48 patients were diagnosed with delirium by the child psychiatrist. The PD-scale had overall sensitivity of 92.3% and specificity of 96.5% compared to the psychiatrist diagnosis for a cutoff score ≥4 points. The rp between the PD-scale and the CAP-D was 0.89 (CI 95%, 0.82–0.93; p < 0.001). The ICC of 75 paired nurse-researcher observations was 0.99 (95% CI, 0.98–0.99).ConclusionsThe PD-scale has good reliability and validity for early screening of PD in critically ill children. It can be validly and reliably used by nurses to this aim.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13054-018-2238-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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