Zhongguo quanke yixue (Aug 2022)
Validity and Applicability of the Chinese Version of the Palliative Care Screening Tool
Abstract
Background Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients with cancer. The development and utilization of palliative care needs screening tools can help health care providers rapidly, accurately, and scientifically identify cancer patients with palliative care needs and enable health care providers to provide them with palliative care related services in a more timely manner. Currently, the literature on screening tools for palliative care needs in China is less common. Objective To hance the palliative care needs screening tool (PCST) and test its validity in hospitalized cancer patients. Methods The PCST was bidirectionally translated following the Brislin translational model. Cultural commissioning of the Chinese version of PCST through expert panel meetings and pre survey. A total of 173 cancer patients admitted to the Department of oncology, biotherapeutics, interventional, and integrative medicine of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Navy Military Medical University were selected for the study from December 2020 to May 2021 using convenience sampling, and the general information questionnaire, Chinese version of PCST were used for this investigation. The critical ratio method and correlation of the item-total scores were used for item analysis, and the content validity of the scale was assessed by expert scoring. To evaluate the validity of known-groups, the palliative care needs screening results of patients with different characteristics were compared. Cronbach's α Coefficient and Guttman compromise coefficient were used to evaluate the internal consistency of the scale. Pearson correlation was used to evaluate the inter rater reliability and test-retest reliability of the scale. Results The Chinese version of the PCST includes 10 items, with scores ranging from 0 to 14 points. The CR values of entries ranged from 0.621 to 8.820, and all entries except entries 1 and 8 achieved significant values (P<0.05). The correlation coefficients between the scores of the individual entries and the total score of the scale ranged from 0.161 to 0.795 (P<0.05), and all entries except entries 8 achieved values greater than 0.200. The mean content validity index was 0. 943 at the scale level, and ranged from 0.429 to 1.000 at the entry level. Cronbach's α for the scale was 0.612, and the Guttman halving coefficient was 0.538. The inter rater reliability coefficient was 0.967 (P<0.001) and the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.960 (P<0.001). Taking a score of 5 as the cutoff for palliative care needs screening, 35.3% (61/173) of the 173 inpatient cancer patients who completed screening required palliative care support. The needs for palliative care in hospitalized cancer patients varied significantly across patients by age groups, number of children, length of illness, number of cancer symptoms, number of visits for cancer in past 6 months, nutritional status and self-care ability (P<0.05) . Conclusion The Chinese version of PCST has good reliability, simplicity and understanding, and it can be used to screen and evaluate the need for palliative care in hospitalized cancer patients in China.
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