title: Validation of an Arabic Questionnaire for Symptom Assessment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Impeccable assessment of symptoms is central to palliative care (PC) practice.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The study objectives are (1) to test the validity of the Arabic Questionnaire for Symptom Assessment (AQSA) as a self-administered (SA) tool for assessing the severity of the listed symptoms among PC patients and (2) to test the validity of AQSA when completed by a proxy.
  
  
  METHODS
  The AQSA is a tool for assessing the severity of 11 symptoms in addition to the overall suffering experience on a 0 to 10 numeric scale. Symptom scores on the SA AQSA were compared to scores obtained through interviews with patients. The same procedure was repeated with patients' sitters to explore the validity of using the tool for symptom assessment by proxy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study involved 107 pairs (a patient and a sitter, each) with a mean age of 46.3 years (females 59.8%) for patients and 35.9 years (females 65.7%) for sitters. The correlation coefficient ( r) for agreement between SA and interview-based (IB) scores for patients ranged from .65 ( P < .0001) for drowsiness to .86 ( P < .0001) for pain. The SA AQSA showed positive correlation between sitters' and patients' scores, with r ranging from .28 ( P = .004) for depression to .62 ( P ≤ .0001) for vomiting.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The strong positive correlation between SA and IB AQSA indicates that the former is a valid tool. When the SA AQSA is used by proxy, it showed moderate to strong positive correlation with patients' actual scores for most of the symptoms.
authors.affiliation: 1 King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohammad Zafir
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Al-Shahri
authors.affiliation: 1 King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ali Saeed
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Al-Zahrani
authors.affiliation: 2 Palliative Care Center, Kuwait, Kuwait.
authors.forename: Ameenah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alansari
authors.affiliation: 2 Palliative Care Center, Kuwait, Kuwait.
authors.forename: Abdulrahman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abdullah
authors.affiliation: 3 Prince Sultan Medical Military City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alshaqi
authors.affiliation: 4 Princess Norah Oncology Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Areej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matar
authors.affiliation: 5 Hamad Medical Corporation, National Center for Cancer Care & Research, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Azza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hassan
authors.affiliation: 1 King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shoukri
authors.affiliation: 1 King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mahmoud Yassin
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Sroor
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D063189:Symptom Assessment / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Arabic; palliative care; proxy reporting; suffering; symptom assessment; validity