Gulbeyaz Can1, Adnan Aydiner. 1. Florence Nightingale School of Nursing, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey. gulbeyaz@istanbul.edu.tr
Abstract
PURPOSE: Treatment-related side effects have an adverse impact on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. This study is a description of the validity and responsiveness demonstrated by a new cancer and cancer treatment-specific symptom scale--the Nightingale Symptom Assessment Scale (N-SAS)--which was developed and validated to address the QoL of Turkish cancer patients. METHOD: The comprehensiveness and clarity of the scale was assessed using 10 patients and pilot testing was carried out with 179 patients. A sample of 374 cancer patients who had received chemotherapy participated in the main study. Descriptive statistics were calculated and comparative tests and factor analysis were performed. RESULTS: The internal reliability of N-SAS was examined and the validity of this scale was determined by correlation with FACT-G. The scale showed high internal reliability, Cronbach's α for the subscales varied between 0.81 and 0.87 and was 0.93 for the tool. Longitudinal analyses showed that changes in N-SAS scores were strongly correlated with changes in FACT-G. Multivariate analysis revealed that having a metastatic cancer diagnosis, having a low level of income, receiving taxane-based therapy and being a woman were the most important predictive factors for the well-being of the cancer patients in this study. CONCLUSIONS: The high correlation with the FACT-G suggests that the new scale is a valid instrument that can be used to evaluate the effect of antineoplastic therapies on a cancer patient's QoL and can help guide nursing care as well as track the improvement of patients' HRQoL.
PURPOSE: Treatment-related side effects have an adverse impact on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of cancerpatients undergoing chemotherapy. This study is a description of the validity and responsiveness demonstrated by a new cancer and cancer treatment-specific symptom scale--the Nightingale Symptom Assessment Scale (N-SAS)--which was developed and validated to address the QoL of Turkish cancerpatients. METHOD: The comprehensiveness and clarity of the scale was assessed using 10 patients and pilot testing was carried out with 179 patients. A sample of 374 cancerpatients who had received chemotherapy participated in the main study. Descriptive statistics were calculated and comparative tests and factor analysis were performed. RESULTS: The internal reliability of N-SAS was examined and the validity of this scale was determined by correlation with FACT-G. The scale showed high internal reliability, Cronbach's α for the subscales varied between 0.81 and 0.87 and was 0.93 for the tool. Longitudinal analyses showed that changes in N-SAS scores were strongly correlated with changes in FACT-G. Multivariate analysis revealed that having a metastatic cancer diagnosis, having a low level of income, receiving taxane-based therapy and being a woman were the most important predictive factors for the well-being of the cancerpatients in this study. CONCLUSIONS: The high correlation with the FACT-G suggests that the new scale is a valid instrument that can be used to evaluate the effect of antineoplastic therapies on a cancerpatient's QoL and can help guide nursing care as well as track the improvement of patients' HRQoL.
Authors: Nazim Ercument Beyhun; Gamze Can; Ahmet Tiryaki; Serdar Karakullukcu; Bekir Bulut; Sehbal Yesilbas; Halil Kavgaci; Murat Topbas Journal: Iran Red Crescent Med J Date: 2016-02-21 Impact factor: 0.611