title: Use of distress and depression thermometers to measure psychosocial morbidity among southern European cancer patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent literature has indicated the need for rapid evaluation of psychosocial issues secondary to cancer. Because of the problems of routine use of psychometric instruments, short instruments such as visual analogue scales or one-item 0-10 scales have been developed as valid assessment alternatives.
  
  
  METHODS
  A study was conducted to examine the role of two 0-10 scales in measuring emotional stress (distress thermometer, DT) and depressed mood (mood thermometer, MT), respectively, in a multicenter study carried out in southern European countries (Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland). A convenience sample of 312 cancer outpatients completed the DT and MT and the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  DT was more significantly associated HADS anxiety than HADS depression while MT was related both to HADS anxiety and depression. The correlation of MT with HADS was higher than DT. A cutoff point >4 on the DT maximized sensitivity (65%) and specificity (79%) for general psychosocial morbidity while a cutoff >5 identified more severe "caseness" (sensitivity=70%; specificity=73%). On the MT, sensitivity and specificity for general psychosocial morbidity were 85% and 72% by using the cutoff score >3. A score >4 on the MT was associated with a sensitivity of 78% and a specificity of 77% in detecting more severe caseness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Two simple instruments, the DT and the MT, were found to have acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity in detecting psychosocial morbidity. Compared to the HADS, however, the mood MT performed better than the DT.
authors.affiliation: Psycho-Oncology Unit, Hospital Duran i Reynals, Institut Català d'Oncologia, Av. Gran Via s/n, km 2,7, 08907 L'Hospitalet, Barcelona, Spain. fgil@ico.scs.es
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gil
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grassi
authors.forename: Luzia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Travado
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tomamichel
authors.forename: Juan Ramón
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012372:ROC Curve; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis*