Incidence of Neurotoxic Symptoms in Iranian Anesthesiology Staff: Psychometric Properties of Persian Version of the Euroquest Questionnaire.

Abstract

BACKGROUND With the increase in the number of people exposed to anesthetic gases, there is a critical need to examine the prevalence of neurotoxic symptoms in these individuals using reliable tools. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of EUROQUEST questionnaire and to measure the rate of neurotoxic symptoms in the anesthesiology personnel. METHODS This research was a cross-sectional study. This study was a cross-sectional one. Participants included 404 personnel of the operating room in western Iran. EUROQUEST questionnaire was translated into Persian and used to measure the rate of neurotoxic symptoms. Reliability of the questionnaire was examined by Cronbach's alpha, while face and construct validities were evaluated using SPSS 16 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and AMOS 18 (IBM, Chicago, IL, USA) software. RESULTS The results indicated that EUROQUEST questionnaire had acceptable reliability and validity. The most prevalent symptoms were observed in memory and concentration, fatigue, and sleepiness. The prevalence of fatigue was higher than other dimensions, with 28% of participants in the third and fourth quartiles. Also, there was no relationship between symptoms and work experience. CONCLUSIONS EUROQUEST questionnaire can be applied in studies of the neurotoxic symptoms. The study of the prevalence of symptoms also indicated that most participants complained about memory and concentration, fatigue, and sleepiness, and these symptoms were observed in all individuals regardless of their work experience.