Symptoms other than pain in palliative care in Portugal

Cultural adaptation and validation of the Portuguese End of Life Spiritual Comfort Questionnaire in Palliative Care patients

Background

Holistic comfort is an important outcome in palliative care and an important goal for patients, relatives and healthcare workers. Holistic comfort considers one's acceptance of life circumstances, support from loved ones and health care professionals, and peaceful resolution of relationships during stressful situations. However, this type of comfort is still difficult to measure, particularly in palliative care patients, as there is a lack of instruments available, especially in the Portuguese language. This study aims to provide an accurate and sensitive instrument to assess the spiritual comfort of Portuguese palliative care patients.

Objective

To perform the cultural adaptation and validation of a Portuguese version of the End of Life Comfort Planning Questionnaire in Palliative Care patients.

Methods

Methodological research, with analytical approach. The translation, synthesis, back translation, review, pretest, semantic evaluation and analysis of the psychometric properties were performed. A total of 141 palliative care patients from acute medical-surgical settings at a central hospital in the north of Portugal were recruited. The Ethics Committee approved the research.

Results

The internal consistency analysis of the adapted instrument resulted in a global alpha value of 0.84 and the factor analysis presented a solution with five factors with rational meaning. The Portuguese version comprised 20 items.

Conclusions

The instrument has good psychometric properties. It was reliable, valid and sensitive to the existence of the spiritual comfort of palliative care patients, and appropriate for further research.