Life before death: identifying preparatory grief through the development of a new measurement in advanced cancer patients (PGAC).
OBJECTIVE
This paper describes the development of a self-rating scale to measure preparatory grief in advanced cancer patients.


METHODS
The Preparatory Grief in Advanced Cancer patients (PGAC) instrument incorporates seven multi-items scales. The final sample consisted of 200 patients. The questionnaire was completed at baseline and 3 days later with a cross-validation sample of 100 patients.


RESULTS
The average time required to complete the questionnaire was 9 min. All scales met the minimum standards of reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient >0.70). The test-retest reliability in terms of Spearman-rho coefficient was also satisfactory (p < 0.05). Validity was demonstrated by content validity, factor analysis, convergence and discriminative validity, inter-scales correlations, concurrent validity with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and known-group validity with the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status.


CONCLUSIONS
The PGAC is a reliable and valid measure for the assessment of anticipatory grief in patients with advanced stage cancer.
Mystakidou
Kyriaki
K
Pain Relief and Palliative Care Unit, Department of Radiology, Areteion Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Athens, 115 26 Athens, Greece. mistakidou@yahoo.com
Tsilika
Eleni
E
Parpa
Efi
E
Katsouda
Emmanuela
E
Sakkas
Pavlos
P
Soldatos
Costas
C
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018447:Medical Futility / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010166:Palliative Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology*