Psychometric Properties of the FACIT-Pal 14 Administered in an Outpatient Palliative Care Clinic.
Myrick C Shinall, E Wesley Ely, Mohana Karlekar and 3 others
PMID 29529883WHAT IT FOUND
In outpatient palliative care, the 14-question quality-of-life measure mostly worked as one overall score, but two items about constipation and breathlessness fit poorly.
Use it to screen general quality of life, not to rank those symptoms.
Key findings
01In 227 patients, the 14-item questionnaire showed good overall consistency.
02Two items, Pal5 and B1, related to constipation and breathlessness, correlated weakly with the rest of the questionnaire and lowered its overall consistency.
03Patients with worse function, shorter life expectancy, or referral for pain and symptom management scored lower, while race and gender did not affect scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study used routine clinical data from one outpatient palliative care clinic, not a prospective, protocolized evaluation of the instrument. Only a few patient factors were available to test whether scores matched expected differences, limiting conclusions about construct validity. The patient population may not represent other patient populations for whom the instrument might be used. The authors said confirmation of these findings requires data from other populations.
Declared interests
The authors reported no relevant conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the 12-item version is validated for all palliative care settings. The improvement was seen only in this one outpatient clinic database, and the authors said confirmation requires data from other populations.