Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Parent Perception of Uncertainty Scale (PPUS) among parents of children with cancer diagnosis.
Zeng Jie Ye, Mei Ling Liu, Zhang Zhang and 5 others
PMID 31406753WHAT IT FOUND
For Chinese parents of children with cancer, a short uncertainty questionnaire may flag emotional distress risk: scores above 42.5 suggested higher risk, but it is not a diagnosis and needs confirmation in other groups.
Key findings
01The revised uncertainty scale showed acceptable internal consistency and stable scores over four weeks.
02The scale's scores were associated with parents' social support, caregiver burden, anxiety and depression.
03A score higher than 42.5 was suggested as a cutoff for identifying parents at higher emotional distress risk.
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 cross-sectional, so it cannot show how uncertainty changes over time or that the scale causes or predicts outcomes. All parents came from one specialist cancer hospital in Guangdong Province, so results may not apply elsewhere. It included only parents of children in cancer treatment lasting less than one year and excluded palliative treatment, so it may miss families at other points in the illness. The cutoff score of 42.5 had sensitivity 0.708 and specificity 0.773, so it is not a definitive diagnosis of anxiety or depression. Only one parent per child was enrolled when both were present, so it may not capture family-level uncertainty. The authors did not compare uncertainty levels across different cancer diagnoses, so its ability to discriminate those groups is untested.
Declared interests
The authors reported no funding or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat a score above 42.5 as proof that a parent has anxiety or depression. The study was cross-sectional, the cutoff had sensitivity 0.708 and specificity 0.773, and it was developed only among Chinese parents of children receiving cancer treatment.