The purpose of this methodological study was to examine the reliability and validity of a translated Korean version of the Critical Care Pain Observation Tool (CPOT) developed for assessment of pain in critically ill nonverbal patients.

A cross-sectional study design was used. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 202 critically ill patients admitted to a university hospital. Upon establishment of content and translation equivalence between the English and Korean version of CPOT, psychometric properties were evaluated.

The interrater reliability was found to be acceptable with the weighted kappa coefficients of .81-.88. Significant high correlations between the CPOT and the Checklist of Nonverbal Pain Indicators were found indicating good concurrent validity (r=.72-.83, p<.001). Data showed the area under the ROC curve of 0.86 with a cut-off point of 1, which resulted in 76.9% sensitivity and 88.6% specificity. The mean score of CPOT during suctioning was significantly different from that of before (t=-14.16, p<.001) or 20 minutes after suctioning (t=16.31, p<.001).

Results of this study suggest that the CPOT can be used as a reliable and valid measure to assess pain in critically ill nonverbal patients.