Content Validation of Primary Care Network Assessment Scale for Palliative Care Patients (ARCP) and Clinical Utility in Patients With Advanced Cancer.
Érika Fernanda Palmieri Guimarães Fontes, Andréia Pereira Assis de Ouverney, Karla Santos da Costa da Rosa and 1 others
PMID 42563515WHAT IT FOUND
Social workers found the ARCP palliative care network assessment clear and relevant.
Among 148 advanced cancer patients, 80% had networks that met all care needs, but 42% relied on one caregiver. High satisfaction did not rule out fragile caregiving.
Key findings
0110 social workers rated all ARCP items as relevant, clear and appropriately worded in one review round.
02Among 148 patients, 80% had fully participatory caregiving networks, but 42% relied on a single caregiver.
03Patients satisfied with social support were more likely to have a fully participatory caregiving network (82.0% vs 44.4%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was done at one national cancer institute in Brazil, so it may not apply to other settings. The clinical utility analysis was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that network structure causes quality of life or caregiver strain. The ARCP has not yet been tested for reliability, agreement between raters, stability over time, or ability to detect change. For regression, the categories were collapsed into non-participatory or partially participatory versus fully participatory networks, which hides differences among individual categories. Patients with cognitive impairment or clinical instability were excluded, so results do not apply to them. Content validation used 10 social workers in one round, so broader multidisciplinary and repeated testing is still needed.
Declared interests
The ARCP was developed by Brazil's National Cancer Institute, and the study was conducted at that institute. The authors reported no funding and no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that using the ARCP improves patient or caregiver outcomes. The study tested content validation and cross-sectional associations, and the authors state that intervention effects still need research.