• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

information for practice

news, new scholarship & more from around the world


advanced search
  • gary.holden@nyu.edu
  • @ Info4Practice
  • Archive
  • About
  • Help
  • Browse Key Journals
  • RSS Feeds

Unmet spiritual needs in palliative care: psychometrics of a screening checklist

Background

While studies in palliative care use measures of spirituality and religious belief, there have been few validation studies of a screening tool that identifies unmet spiritual needs.

Methods

A multidisciplinary research team developed and examined the usefulness, reliability and validity of a 17-item Spiritual Concerns Checklist (SCC) as a screening tool for unmet spiritual needs. A cohort of patients recruited from three palliative care services in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia completed anonymous questionnaires. Factor structure and item response theory were used to examine its properties; concurrent validity employed the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy—Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp-12).

Results

Among 261 patients, while only 15% directly sought spiritual care, nearly 62% identified at least one spiritual concern. Existential needs (fear of the dying process 32%; loss of control 31%), regret (20%), need for forgiveness (17%), guilt (13%), loss of hope (13%) and meaning (15%) were prominent concerns. Eleven concerns were present for more than 10% of the participants and 25% of religiously orientated participants expressed >4 concerns. The 17-item SCC was unidimensional, with satisfactory reliability. Concurrent validity was evident in the reduced sense of meaning and peace on the FACIT-Sp-12.

Conclusion

This preliminary Rasch analysis of the newly developed SCC has demonstrated its usefulness, reliability and validity. Our findings encourage refinement and ongoing development of the SCC with further investigation of its psychometric properties in varying populations.

Read the full article ›

Posted in: Open Access Journal Articles on 01/15/2021 | Link to this post on IFP |
Share

Primary Sidebar

Categories

Category RSS Feeds

  • Calls & Consultations
  • Clinical Trials
  • Funding
  • Grey Literature
  • Guidelines Plus
  • History
  • Infographics
  • Journal Article Abstracts
  • Meta-analyses - Systematic Reviews
  • Monographs & Edited Collections
  • News
  • Open Access Journal Articles
  • Podcasts
  • Video

© 1993-2025 Dr. Gary Holden. All rights reserved.

gary.holden@nyu.edu
@Info4Practice