Psychometric evaluation of the Caregiver Needs Screen in neuro-oncology family caregivers

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The informal care demands of brain tumour patients include various issues associated with neurological and cognitive symptoms. Caregiver needs questionnaires developed for cancer populations do not include these disease-specific symptoms. Therefore, we have developed the neuro-oncology Caregiver Needs Screen (CNS) and evaluated its psychometric properties.

METHODS

In-depth qualitative interviews with caregivers were used to generate items, which were reviewed by experts to add or collapse items as necessary. The resulting 32-item instrument was tested in a sample of 122 neuro-oncology caregivers, along measures of depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies – Depression scale), anxiety (Profile of Mood States – Anxiety), caregiver burden (Caregiver Reaction Assessment) and mastery (Mastery Scale). Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine internal structure. Internal consistency reliability and construct validity were assessed.

RESULTS

Six subscales were identified (neurologic symptoms; oncologic symptoms; personal communication; communicating with health care providers; resources; caregiver health). Internal consistency for the subscales ranged between α = .653 and α = .886. A floor effect was found for the personal communication subscale only. Convergent validity was verified by moderate to strong correlations between measures of caregiver wellbeing and CNS scale scores.

DISCUSSION

Findings provide preliminary evidence of reliability and validity for the CNS as a measure of neuro-oncology caregiver distress as a result of common care issues. This instrument can prove useful in research setting as well as in clinical practice when assessing caregivers' needs for supportive care.