https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2428-9350
Abstract
Purpose
Patients affected by tuberculosis have diverse unmet supportive care needs (SCN) that may seriously affect their treatment adherence. Accurately assessing patients’ SCN is important for providing efficient patient-centred care, but few instruments are suitable for use in clinical practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop an SCN scale for patients with tuberculosis (SCN-TB) and to evaluate its psychometrical properties.
Patients and Methods
Based on the SCN framework, the SCN-TB was designed via a literature review, Delphi consultation and pilot study. Then, 550 patients from four tuberculosis specialist hospitals in Shaanxi Province were enrolled by convenience sampling to further test the validity and reliability of the SCN-TB.
Results
A total of 518 patients completed the survey. The final scale encompasses 25 items in five domains: physical, practical, psycho-emotional, social, and informational. The content validity for the scale was 0.93, with that for each item ranging from 0.80 to 1.00. Five factors that explained 80.38% of the variance were identified in exploratory factor analysis. A five-factor model was then confirmed with confirmatory factor analysis using maximum likelihood estimation with bootstrapping. The model fit indices were χ2/df=1.062 (Bollen-Stine χ2=281.382, df=265, p<0.001), CFI=0.997, RMSEA=0.016, SRMR=0.053, NFI=0.951, and GFI=0.929. All factors had acceptable convergent and discriminant validity. The Cronbach’s α, split-half, and test-retest reliability coefficients of the scale were 0.884, 0.883, and 0.854, respectively.
Conclusion
The SCN-TB is a valid and reliable theory based tool for assessing the needs of patients with tuberculosis and can be applied in both clinical practice and research.
Data Sharing Statement
The data underlying this article will be shared on a reasonable request to the corresponding author.
Ethical Considerations
This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Ethics Committee of Xi’an Jiaotong University (No. 2020-1244), and written informed consent was obtained from all participants before filling the survey. The investigation process adhered to the principles of confidentiality, with the questionnaires completed anonymously, and the research data were used only in this research.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the experts who reviewed this scale, the patients who participated in the study, and the doctors and nurses who helped us in recruiting patients.
Author Contributions
All authors made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; took part in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; agreed to submit to the current journal and gave final approval of the version to be published, and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Disclosure
The authors declared that no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.