Paper
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Psychometric Evaluation of the Spiritual Distress Scales Among Cancer Patients
Ya Lie Ku, MSN, Department of Nursing, Fooyin University, Ta-Liao Hsiang, Taiwan, Huey Jen Chen, PhD, ARNP, Department of Mental Health Law & Policy, University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, Tampa, FL, USA, Shih-Ming Kuo, MS, Environment Engineering, Fooyin University, Kaohsiung Hsien, Taiwan, and Ching-Yi Yao, BA, Nursing Department, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan.
| Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to understand the validity of Ku’s Spiritual Distress Scale (KSDS). |
| Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to understand the reliability of Ku’s Spiritual Distress Scale (KSDS). |
A literature review indicates that the majority of spiritual scales were focused on the well-being and health areas, while few studies were explored the spiritual distress for cancer patients, but symptom distress. Therefore, the researcher has interviewed 20 cancer patients and developed a Ku’s Spiritual Distress Scale (KSDS) with four domains: relationship with themselves, others, God, and facing death. The following study is to establish the reliability and validity of the KSDS. The evaluation process of content validity for KSDS is by following four experts. For construct validity, principal component factor analysis was used to identify the factor loading of each item and the total variance being explained by KSDS. Concurrent validity were tested by 20 cancer patients who self-evaluate their spiritual distress in 1-4 point Liker scale from no distress to serious distress, and at the same time nurses also assessed the patients’ spiritual distress. For reliability, internal consistency by testing KSDS Cronbach’s α
and test-retest reliability was tested 10 cancer patients within two weeks. Purposive sampling was used in this study to recruit 100 different types of cancer patients in a southern medical center hospital. This study was approved by the IRB of a southern medical center hospital and conducted from August, 2004 to July, 2005. The psychometric evaluation of KSDS has indicated that four subscales explaining 68.6% variance for 85 cancer patients by factor analysis, which identified the accepted construct validity. Besides, content validity, internal consistency, and stability for each subscale as well as the total scale were satisfied too. Additionally, except for two items, the concurrent validity was proofed by the consistency between 14 cancer patients’ and nurses’ evaluation of KSDS. Trust and alienation issues between cancer patients and health care professionals would be proposed to study in detail and advanced.