Spanish Adaptation of the Pediatric Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale for Children, Teens, and Caregivers
cancer; Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale; Msas; patient reported outcomes; pediatrics; symptom assessment; symptom distress; validity
CONTEXT: There are no validated Spanish tools to assess symptom burden in pediatric cancer. The Pediatric Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (Pediatric-MSAS) is an English valid multidimensional and comprehensive instrument. OBJECTIVES: To validate Pediatric-MSAS-Spanish (MSAS-Child, MSAS-Teen, and MSAS-Caregiver versions) in cancer patients treated in two public hospitals in Buenos Aires, Argentina. METHODS: Cross-sectional study, classical psychometric theory. We recruited a convenience sample of 148 caregivers of children ≥2 years old, 51 young children (7 to 12 years) and 48 adolescents (≥13 years). We assessed feasibility, comprehensibility, internal consistency, and convergent and known-groups validity. RESULTS: Pediatric-MSAS-Spanish was feasible, acceptable and comprehensible. Reliability of MSAS-total and subscale scores was satisfactory (Cronbach alpha: 0.90, 0.89, 0.71 respectively for caregiver, teen, and child MSAS-total score). MSAS-total caregiver, teen, and child scores met a priori criteria for convergent validity correlating with Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory total scores (Spearman correlation (r(s))=-0.59, -0.66, and -0.32, respectively) and visual-analogue-wellbeing scores (r(s)=-0.63, -0.46, and -0.4, respectively). Caregiver-teen correlation was strong for total (r(s)=0.78) and physical (r(s)=0.85) scores, and moderate for global distress index (GDI) (r(s)=0.64) and psychological (r(s)=0.45) scores. MSAS-total caregiver-child correlation was moderate (r(s)=0.30) and Kappa analysis showed poor agreement. All MSAS-Caregiver scores and MSAS-Teen total and physical scores differentiated inpatients/outpatients and patients on/off-treatment, while MSAS-Teen psychological and GDI subscales or MSAS-Child scores did not. CONCLUSION: Pediatric-MSAS-Spanish is feasible and reliable for assessing symptom burden in children with cancer. Validity of MSAS-Caregiver and MSAS-Teen was largely supported. Further work on MSAS-Child is warranted.
Requena ML; Orellana L; Cordeiro V; Luna F; Bevilacqua MS; Gomez K; Wolfe J; Dussel V
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
2020
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.10.022" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.10.022</a>
The Measurement of Symptoms in Children with Cancer
Child; Female; Humans; Male; symptoms; Pediatrics; Longitudinal Studies; Sleep Stages; Children; adolescent; Pain/etiology; Oncology at EOL; cancer; Cough/etiology; Fatigue/etiology; Eating Disorders/etiology; malignancy; Nausea/etiology; Neoplasms/complications/physiopathology/psychology; symptom distress
The purpose of this study was to determine symptom prevalence, characteristics, and distress in children with cancer. The Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS) 10–18, a 30-item patient-rated instrument adapted from a previously validated adult version, provided multidimensional information about the symptoms experienced by children with cancer. This instrument was administered to 160 children with cancer aged 10–18 (45 inpatients, 115 outpatients). To confirm the instrument's reliability and validity, additional data about symptoms were collected from both the parents and the medical charts, and retesting was performed on a subgroup of inpatients. Patients could easily complete the scale in a mean of 11 minutes. The analyses supported the reliability and validity of the MSAS 10–18 subscale scores as measures of physical, psychological, and global symptom distress, respectively. Symptom prevalence ranged from 49.7% for lack of energy to 6.3% for problems with urination. The mean (± SD) number of symptoms per inpatient was 12.7 ± 4.9 (range, 4–26), significantly more than the mean 6.5 ± 5.7 (range, 0–28) symptoms per outpatient. Patients who had recently received chemotherapy had significantly more symptoms than patients who had not received chemotherapy for more than 4 months (11.6 ± 6.0 vs. 5.2 ± 5.1), and those patients with solid tumors had significantly more symptoms than patients with either leukemia, lymphoma, or central nervous system malignancies (9.9 ± 7.0 vs. 6.8 ± 5.5 vs. 6.8 ± 5.0 vs. 8.0 ± 6.1). The most common symptoms (prevalence > 35%) were lack of energy, pain, drowsiness, nausea, cough, lack of appetite, and psychological symptoms (feeling sad, feeling nervous, worrying, feeling irritable). Of the symptoms with prevalence rates > 35%, those that caused high distress in more than one-third of patients were feeling sad, pain, nausea, lack of appetite, and feeling irritable. Subscale scores demonstrated large variability in symptom distress and could identify subgroups with high distress. The prevalence, characteristics, and distress associated with physical and psychological symptoms could be quantified in older children with cancer. The data confirm a high prevalence of symptoms overall and the existence of subgroups with high distress associated with one or multiple symptoms. Symptom distress is relatively higher among inpatients, children with solid tumors, and children who are undergoing antineoplastic treatment. Systematic symptom assessment may be useful in future epidemiological studies of symptoms and in clinical chemotherapeutic trials. Symptom epidemiology may also provide a focus for future clinical trials related to symptom management in children with cancer.
2000-05
Collins J J; Byrnes ME; Dunkel IJ; Lapin J; Nadel Traci; Thaler H; Polyak Tanya; Rapkin B; Portenoy RK
Journal Of Pain And Symptom Management
2000
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-3924(00)00127-5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.1016/S0885-3924(00)00127-5</a>