Spanish Adaptation of the Pediatric Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale for Children, Teens, and Caregivers

Spanish Adaptation of the Pediatric Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale for Children, Teens, and Caregivers

Requena ML; Orellana L; Cordeiro V; Luna F; Bevilacqua MS; Gomez K; Wolfe J; Dussel V

Journal of Pain and Symptom Management

2020

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.

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December 2020 List