Psychometric Validation Of The Chinese Translated Version Of The Supportive Care Needs Survey And Preliminary Development Of A Supportive Care Guideline For Partners And Caregivers Of Cancer Patients

Objectives(1) Translate, validate and apply SCNS-P&C in Chinese caregivers;(2)Develop, implement and evaluate effects of the supportive care guideline on the needs among caregivers of patients with cancer.Methods PartⅠ: Firstly, we forward-backward translated and adapted the SCNS-P&C into Chinese version; secondly, tested the content validity of the Chinese version of SCNS-P&C; thirdly, validated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version SCNS-P&C. Convenience sample of 24 caregivers were tested to do the preliminary study of the Chinese version of SCNS-P&C. 498 caregivers of cancer patients who admitted in three tertiary hospitals from May 2015 to October 2015 were recruited by using convenience sampling method. The reliability was assessed by using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and split-half reliability; the validity was assessed by the indexes of content validity, face validity, and construct validity. We used project analysis to test the discrimination of scale. Part Ⅱ : Convenience sampling method was used to recruit caregivers of patients with digestive system cancer from November 2015 to February2016 in a tertiary hospital in Anhui Province. Those caregivers in control group received the routine education and a supportive care guideline was used for caregivers of patients with Cancer in intervention group. The baseline survey was conducted in the 1st day at the hospital. Data after the intervention was collected in the 7th day of discharge and the1 st day of next cycle of chemotherapy. The measurement tools included the Chinese version of Supportive Care Needs Survey-Partners and Caregivers and Positive Aspects of Caregiving. Repeated measures data ANOVA, Independent-samples t test and Paired-samples t test were used to compare the scores of Chinese version of Supportive Care Needs Survey-Partners and Caregivers and Positive Aspects of Caregiving before and after intervention.Results PartⅠ:(1) After forward-backward translating, adaptation, and measuring of the content validity, Chinese version of SCNS-P&C comprised 45 items. All the I-CVIs of items were 1.000, S-CVI was 1.000;(2) The result of item analysis showed the scores in the two groups of each item were significant(P<0.05);(3) The result showed that the face validity of the Chinese version of SCNS-P&C was good;(4) Exploratory factor analysis showed that the most interpretable solution consisted of 4 factors which explained 57.443% of variance of the total scale; the convergent validity of the Chinese version of SCNS-P&C was also supported. The results revealed a moderate, positive correlation between scores on the Chinese version of SCNS-P&C and the K10;discriminant validity was good, as indicated by low correlation and insignificant correlation between scores on the Chinese version of SCNS-P&C and the PAC; the instrument discriminated between known subgroups. In present study, the Chinese version of SCNS-P&C was able to discriminate between cancer caregivers with respect to age(P<0.05). The findings were consistent with other studies suggesting that younger caregivers were more likely to experience certain types of needs;(5) The Cronbach’s αcoefficient was 0.946, and the split-half reliability coefficient was 0.794. Part Ⅱ :Before the intervention, there was no significant difference(P>0.05) between the two groups regarding the demographic and disease characteristics, the scores of the Chinese version of Supportive Care Needs Survey-Partners and Caregivers, and Positive Aspects of Caregiving. Before and after the intervention, the time effect and interaction effect in supportive care needs were statistically significant(P<0.05). The time effect, group effect and interaction effect all were statistically significant in positive aspects(P<0.05).After the intervention, the scores of Positive Aspects of Caregiving in the intervention group were all higher than those in the control group, the differences were statistically significant(P<0.05) in the 7th day of discharge. The scores of the Chinese version of Supportive Care Needs Survey-Partners and Caregivers in the intervention group were lower than those in the control group, the differences were statistically significant(P<0.05) in the 1st day of next cycle of chemotherapy. Before and after intervention, the scores of the Chinese version of Supportive Care Needs Survey-Partners and Caregivers,and Positive Aspects of Caregiving Scale in the control group caregivers were not statistically significant, nevertheless, the differences of the intervention group were all statistically significant(P<0.05).Conclusion The results suggested that the Chinese version of the SCNS-P&C can be used as a robust and valid tool to assess the multidimensional needs for partners and caregivers of patients with cancer in China. The supportive care guideline for caregivers of patients with Cancer had alleviated the supportive care needs of partners and caregivers of patients with digestive system cancer, and improved the caregivers’ positive aspects to certain extent.