This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Morita, T Articles by Kashiwagi, T Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Morita, T Articles by Kashiwagi, T Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

A scale to measure satisfaction of bereaved family receiving inpatient palliative care

S Chihara

Seirei Hospice, Seirei Mikatabara Hospital, Osaka

T Kashiwagi

Graduate School of Human Science, Osaka University, Osaka

Although satisfaction is an important outcome of medical care, there are no validated tools to quantify family satisfaction with hospital-based palliative care. In this nationwide postal survey, an instrument to measure informal carer satisfaction with an inpatient palliative care service was validated. A 60-item questionnaire was mailed to 1344 bereaved people who had lost their family members at 50 palliative care units in Japan, and 850 responses were analysed (response rate=64%). The reliability, construct validity, and convergent validity of the scale were examined after the responses were randomly divided into two groups: a training set used in the development phase (n=500) and a testing set used in the validation phase (n=350). The number of scale items was reduced from 50 to 34 through psychometric techniques in the development phase. In the testing sample, the overall Cronbach's coefficient alpha for the final 34-item scale was 0.98. A factor analysis revealed that the scale consisted of seven subcategories: Nursing Care, Facility, Information, Availability, Family Care, Cost, and Symptom Palliation. The total score of the scale was significantly correlated with the degree of global satisfaction of the bereaved (Spearman's r=0.78). In conclusion, this 34-item scale, the Satisfaction Scale for Family Members Receiving Inpatient Palliative Care (Sat-Fam-IPC), has acceptable psychometric properties and would be a useful tool to measure carer satisfaction with an inpatient palliative care service.

Key Words: measurement • palliative care • psychometry • satisfaction

Palliative Medicine, Vol. 16, No. 2, 141-150 (2002)
DOI: 10.1191/0269216302pm514oa


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Miyashita, T. Morita, and K. Hirai Evaluation of End-of-Life Cancer Care From the Perspective of Bereaved Family Members: The Japanese Experience J. Clin. Oncol., August 10, 2008; 26(23): 3845 - 3852. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Miyashita, T. Morita, S. Tsuneto, K. Sato, and Y. Shima The Japan HOspice and Palliative Care Evaluation Study (J-HOPE Study): Study Design and Characteristics of Participating Institutions American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, June 1, 2008; 25(3): 223 - 232. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. Mayland, E. Williams, and J. Ellershaw How well do current instruments using bereaved relatives' views evaluate care for dying patients? Palliative Medicine, March 1, 2008; 22(2): 133 - 144. [Abstract] [PDF]