Validação psicométrica da escala de avaliação do desempenho do doente em cuidados paliativos para a população portuguesa

Abstract

Background: The Palliative Performance Scale is one of the most used tools in Portugal and also worldwide, namely in referencing patients to Palliative Care teams, as a communication facilitation tool or finding a prognosis. Aim: To validate psychometrically the Palliative Performance Scale to the Portuguese Population. Method: Methodological study of psychometric validation. The language validation has previously been made by another investigator, as an activity of the Observatório Português dos Cuidados Paliativos. The studied population was composed by palliative patients followed by a Hospital Palliative Care team, including inpatients and outpatients, in the moment of admission, or, posteriorly, in follow-up, in 2021. Through a process of non-probabilistic sequential sampling, the scale was applied to 105 palliative patients, each one by two observers. Results: By calculating the weighted kappa, the agreement between scores given by two observers for each patient was tested, accounting the magnitude order. The weighted kappa obtained was 0,85. Discussion and Conclusion: The weighted kappa value that was obtained shows good agreement between scores given by the observers evaluating palliative patients, namely in terms of order of magnitude, so it can be concluded that this scale ́s semantic validation for the Portuguese population has the adequate psychometric features.

Date of Award	19 Jul 2022
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Manuel Luís Capelas (Supervisor)