Assessment of the Turkish version of the king's stool chart for evaluating stool output and diarrhea among patients receiving enteral nutrition

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the King's Stool Chart (KSC-Tr) in patients receiving enteral nutrition. In total, 212 stool samples taken from 25 patients receiving enteral nutrition during 393 sick days in two intensive care units were assessed using the KSC-Tr. Overall, 110 of 212 stools (51.9%) were characterized as liquid and 111 of 212 stools (52.4%) were characterized as less than 100 g. The daily stool score of patients receiving antibiotics, a risk factor for diarrhea, was higher (mean = 13.6; SD = 10.1) than that of patients not receiving antibiotics (mean = 9.3; SD = 5.0) (p =.001). Diarrhea occurred on more days when patients received antibiotics (62/329; 18.8%) than on days when they did not (3/64; 4.7%) (p =.005). Interobserver agreement of two independent nurses' assessments on 44 stool samples was examined and was good for both stool consistency (kappa = 0.76) and stool weight (kappa = 0.75). In the intensive care unit, the KSC-Tr can be used as a valid and reliable tool for monitoring diarrhea and stool output in patients receiving enteral nutrition.