{"id":413,"date":"2025-03-16T15:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T14:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/2025\/03\/16\/validation-of-the-rims-it-scale\/"},"modified":"2025-03-23T16:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T15:12:15","slug":"validation-of-the-rims-it-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/2025\/03\/16\/validation-of-the-rims-it-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"Validation of the RIMS-IT scale."},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"131\" data-end=\"495\">Coping with pregnancy loss is an emotionally complex and often underestimated experience. Women who experience it may develop anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and complicated grief. However, until now, there has been no specific instrument in Italy to accurately assess the psychological experience of this experience.  <\/p>\n<p data-start=\"497\" data-end=\"1013\">Our new study, a collaboration between <strong data-start=\"553\" data-end=\"587\">the University of Milano-Bicocca<\/strong>, the <strong data-start=\"592\" data-end=\"619\">CiaoLapo ETS Foundation<\/strong> and the <strong data-start=\"625\" data-end=\"673\">PeaRL Laboratory of the University of Florence<\/strong>, has led to the Italian validation of the <strong data-start=\"718\" data-end=\"767\">Revised Impact of Miscarriage Scale (RIMS-IT)<\/strong>, an instrument that will enable clinicians and researchers to identify early women at risk of developing psychological complications after pregnancy loss. The study has just been published in <em data-start=\"980\" data-end=\"1010\">BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth<\/em>. <\/p>\n<h2 data-start=\"1015\" data-end=\"1084\"><strong data-start=\"1018\" data-end=\"1082\">A specific tool for often invisible suffering<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"1085\" data-end=\"1478\">Many current instruments assess perinatal grief in a general sense, but <strong data-start=\"1160\" data-end=\"1247\">not all women perceive pregnancy loss as traditional grief<\/strong>. Some experience a strong sense of guilt or isolation; others suffer in silence because of the lack of social recognition of their grief. The <strong data-start=\"1393\" data-end=\"1404\">RIMS-IT<\/strong> allows these nuances to be analyzed through three key dimensions:  <\/p>\n<ol>\n<li data-start=\"1480\" data-end=\"1797\"><strong data-start=\"1483\" data-end=\"1514\">Isolation and guilt<\/strong>: how much a woman feels alone in her grief and how much she blames herself for the loss.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1480\" data-end=\"1797\"><strong data-start=\"1624\" data-end=\"1647\">Child loss<\/strong>: the intensity of the sense of grief and emotional emptiness.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1480\" data-end=\"1797\"><strong data-start=\"1702\" data-end=\"1723\">Devastating event<\/strong>: the perception of loss as a profound and destabilizing trauma.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p data-start=\"1799\" data-end=\"1966\">We validated the RIMS-IT on <strong data-start=\"1830\" data-end=\"1852\">543 Italian women<\/strong> who had experienced pregnancy loss in the past 36 months and confirmed its reliability and validity.<\/p>\n<h2 data-start=\"1968\" data-end=\"1999\"><strong data-start=\"1971\" data-end=\"1997\">What did we find?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"2000\" data-end=\"2514\"><strong data-start=\"2003\" data-end=\"2075\">Sixty-one percent of women reported a significant psychological impact<\/strong>, with symptoms of stress and anxiety particularly high in women with repeat abortions.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"2000\" data-end=\"2514\"><strong data-start=\"2169\" data-end=\"2259\">Guilt and social isolation emerged as key factors of distress<\/strong>, confirming that many women feel misunderstood and deprived of support.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"2000\" data-end=\"2514\">\u26a0\ufe0f <strong data-start=\"2339\" data-end=\"2418\">Current bereavement rating scales may not be sufficient<\/strong> to capture the specific psychological distress of women experiencing pregnancy loss.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 data-start=\"2516\" data-end=\"2559\"><strong data-start=\"2519\" data-end=\"2557\">An aid for clinicians and researchers<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"2560\" data-end=\"2727\"><strong data-start=\"2563\" data-end=\"2574\">RIMS-IT<\/strong> represents a <strong data-start=\"2590\" data-end=\"2639\">step forward for perinatal mental health<\/strong>, providing a <strong data-start=\"2653\" data-end=\"2724\">new tool for gynecologists, midwives, psychologists and researchers<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2729\" data-end=\"3027\">\u2705 <strong data-start=\"2731\" data-end=\"2759\">Early identification<\/strong> of women at risk of developing psychological complications.<br data-start=\"2818\" data-end=\"2821\">\u2705 <strong data-start=\"2823\" data-end=\"2876\">Personalize psychological support pathways<\/strong>, preventing suffering from remaining undetected.<br data-start=\"2920\" data-end=\"2923\">\u2705 <strong data-start=\"2925\" data-end=\"2979\">Improve research on maternal mental health<\/strong> by integrating more specific and detailed data.<\/p>\n<h2 data-start=\"3029\" data-end=\"3049\"><strong data-start=\"3032\" data-end=\"3047\">Conclusions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col flex-grow\">\n<div class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 whitespace-normal break-words text-start [.text-message+&amp;]:mt-5\" dir=\"auto\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"007c906c-44ee-43f5-8780-30add12ae152\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-4o\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[3px]\">\n<div class=\"markdown prose w-full break-words dark:prose-invert light\">\n<p data-start=\"22\" data-end=\"502\">The validation of the <strong data-start=\"41\" data-end=\"90\">Revised Impact of Miscarriage Scale (RIMS-IT)<\/strong> in Italy is an important step in improving recognition and support for women facing pregnancy loss. Our study confirmed the<strong data-start=\"301\" data-end=\"317\">reliability<\/strong> and <strong data-start=\"323\" data-end=\"348\">psychometric validity<\/strong> of the instrument, even in Italian women, with high internal consistency<strong data-start=\"399\" data-end=\"426\">(Cronbach&#8217;s alpha = 0.89<\/strong>) and a factorial structure reflecting that of the original version.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"504\" data-end=\"810\">The <strong data-start=\"507\" data-end=\"518\">RIMS-IT<\/strong> showed <strong data-start=\"531\" data-end=\"625\">strong correlation with other scales assessing grief and post-traumatic stress<\/strong>, such as the <strong data-start=\"635\" data-end=\"666\">Perinatal Grief Scale (PGS)<\/strong> and the <strong data-start=\"672\" data-end=\"727\">National Stressful Events PTSD Short Scale (NSESSS)<\/strong>, showing its specificity in measuring post-abortion psychological distress.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"812\" data-end=\"1202\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">These results suggest that <strong data-start=\"849\" data-end=\"919\">RIMS-IT can be a valuable tool for clinical and research<\/strong>, allowing <strong data-start=\"936\" data-end=\"984\">early identification of women at risk<\/strong> and improving psychological care after pregnancy loss. Further studies may extend its applicability to other contexts, including the assessment of paternal experience, which has yet to be explored.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-2 flex gap-3 -ml-2\" tabindex=\"0\">\n<div class=\"flex items-center justify-start rounded-xl p-1\">\n<div class=\"flex items-center\">\n<div class=\"flex items-center pb-0\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p data-start=\"3528\" data-end=\"3640\"><strong data-start=\"3531\" data-end=\"3604\">If you would like to learn more about our study, find the full article here:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\" data-start=\"3528\" data-end=\"3640\">Nespoli, A., Fumagalli, S., Mosconi, L., Bonaiuti, R., Vannacci, A., Ravaldi, C., Assessment of the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the revised impact of miscarriage scale (RIMS): a validity and reliability study. <i>BMC Pregnancy Childbirth<\/i> <b>25<\/b>, 289 (2025). <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s12884-025-07422-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s12884-025-07422-5<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coping with pregnancy loss is an emotionally complex and often underestimated experience. Women who experience it may develop anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and complicated grief. However, until now, there&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,34],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-search","category-search-en","tag-abortion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione.ciaolapo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}