A New Italian Questionnaire to Assess Caregivers of Cancer Patients' Satisfaction With Palliative Care: Multicenter Validation of the Post Mortem Questionnaire-Short Form.

Partinico M, Corà A, Ghisi M, Ouimet AJ, Visentin M; on behalf of the QPM Group.

Source

Psychology Unit, San Bortolo Hospital, Vicenza, Italy. Electronic address: psic.terapiadolore@ulssvicenza.it.

Abstract

CONTEXT:

Caregiver satisfaction with palliative care is a crucial indicator of its effectiveness. In light of the lack of validated or reliable Italian instruments, the Post Mortem Questionnaire-Short Form (QPM-SF), a self-report questionnaire, has been developed to assess home and inpatient hospice care.

OBJECTIVES:

The present study was designed to evaluate the psychometric properties of QPM-SF and assess for differences in quality of palliative care between hospice and home care settings.

METHODS:

A total of 584 caregivers of terminal cancer patients completed QPM-SF one month after the death of the care recipient. To assess test-retest reliability, a subgroup of 50 caregivers completed the questionnaire a second time, one month later.

RESULTS:

QPM-SF showed good internal consistency and temporal stability and a four-factor structure: "Integrated home care," "Hospice," "Physical care-Information-Global evaluation," and "Needs."

CONCLUSION:

QPM-SF may be considered a valid, reliable, and well-accepted self-report instrument for examining and implementing palliative care interventions.

J Pain Symptom Manage. 2013 Jul 12.

Copyright © 2013 U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

KEYWORDS:

Palliative care, cancer, end-of-life care, satisfaction, terminal phase