Spanish adaptation and validation of the supportive & palliative care indicators tool – SPICT-ES(TM)

OBJECTIVE: To culturally adapt and validate the SPICT(TM) to Spanish, which is a brief and simple tool to support a better identification of chronic patients who have palliative care needs. METHODS: For this study, we designed a multicenter and national project between the centers of Galicia, Balearic Islands, and Andalusia. For the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the SPICT(TM) to Spanish, we followed the steps proposed by Beaton et al. with successive translations and subsequent consensus of experts using the debriefing methodology. After the content validation was completed, the psychometric properties were validated. A prospective longitudinal study was designed with 188 patients from Galicia, the Balearic Islands, and Andalusia. The internal consistency and reliability of the test and retest was analyzed for 10 days by the same researcher. RESULTS: For more than 90% of the participants of the SPICT-ES(TM), it seems simple to be filled out, and they consider it written in an understandable language. The average time to apply the questionnaire without prior knowledge was 4 minutes and 45 seconds. To evaluate the internal consistency of the instrument, we used the Kuder-Richardson formula 20. Internal consistency is 0.71. The agreement index of the Kappa test is between 0.983 and 0.797 for the different items. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we demonstrate the equivalence of content with the original. In addition, the validation of the psychometric properties establishes that the SPICT-ES(TM) maintains adequate reliability and stability. If we add the satisfaction shown by the professionals and the ease of use, the SPICT-ES(TM) is an adequate tool for the identification of palliative patients with chronic diseases and palliative care needs.