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The schedule of attitudes toward hastened death: Validation analysis in terminally ill cancer patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2005

KYRIAKI MYSTAKIDOU ,
BARRY ROSENFELD ,
EFI PARPA ,
ELENI TSILIKA ,
EMMANUELA KATSOUDA ,
ANTONIS GALANOS  and
LAMBROS VLAHOS
KYRIAKI MYSTAKIDOU
Affiliation:
Pain Relief and Palliative Care Unit, Department of Radiology, Areteion Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
BARRY ROSENFELD
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, New York
EFI PARPA
Affiliation:
Pain Relief and Palliative Care Unit, Department of Radiology, Areteion Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
ELENI TSILIKA
Affiliation:
Pain Relief and Palliative Care Unit, Department of Radiology, Areteion Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
EMMANUELA KATSOUDA
Affiliation:
Pain Relief and Palliative Care Unit, Department of Radiology, Areteion Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
ANTONIS GALANOS
Affiliation:
Pain Relief and Palliative Care Unit, Department of Radiology, Areteion Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
LAMBROS VLAHOS
Affiliation:
Department of Radiology, Areteion Hospital, University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Greece
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Abstract

Objective: The faithful translation of the English version of the Schedule of Attitudes toward Hastened Death (SAHD) into Greek and its validation as an assessment tool in terminally ill cancer patients receiving palliative treatment.

Methods: 120 terminally ill cancer patients attending a Palliative Care Unit, at the University of Athens, Greece, between June 2003 and November 2003 for palliative treatment.

Results: SAHD would be a useful instrument for measuring desire for hastened death with valid psychometric properties in a Greek cancer population. The SAHD demonstrated high reliability. Desire for hastened death was significantly associated with Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD) depression (r = 0.607, p < 0.0005) and substantially correlated with HAD anxiety (r = 0.502, p < 0.0005). “Pain intensity” had a moderate correlation with SAHD scores (r = 0.28, p = 0.01) and SAHD scores correlated significantly with “pain interference in mood” (r = 0.38, p = 0.01) and in “enjoyment of life” (r = 0.34, p = 0.03). SAHD correlation with quality of life was statistically significant (r = −0.38, p < 0.01) as was health status (r = −0.36, p < 0.01). Patients with a Poor Performance Status (from Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group scale) correlated significantly with high scores in SAHD (p = 0.038). Factor analysis supported the unidimentionality of the measurement.

Significance of results: SAHD could be a useful and valid instrument for measuring desire for hastened death in Greek terminally ill cancer patients.

Keywords

Palliative careHastened deathGreece
Type
Research Article
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , December 2004 , pp. 395 - 402
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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