Cultural adaptation and validation of the SPICT-ES™ instrument to identify palliative care needs in Chilean older adults

INTRODUCTION: Chile presents a context of an aging population and increased life expectancy, leading to many older adults (OA) needing palliative care (PC) during the course of their illness. The SPICT-ES™ is an instrument used to clinically evaluate patients with advanced chronic illness (ACI) to detect PC needs. Validating this instrument in Chile will allow for early detection of OA at risk of clinical deterioration who require this care. OBJECTIVE: Adapt and validate the SPICT-ES™ instrument to identify PC needs among OA in Chile. METHODOLOGY: Study following quantitative design – cross-sectional, descriptive, and developed in three stages: cultural adaptation by expert judgment; preliminary test of the SPICT-ES(CH) instrument to evaluate reliability and application of the SPICT-ES(CH) in 292 patients, to determine internal consistency and stability of the instrument. This study was done between January 2019 and July 2021. Participants in the study were nurses and OA from 5 health centers in Santiago, Chile. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Universidad de los Andes. RESULTS: In the cultural adaptation with content validity, following expert judgment, all items were kept. Semantic modifications were made on only three of them. A Lawshe coefficient of 84% which determined SPICT-ES(CH) as an acceptable instrument for the following stages of validation and reliability. The pilot for the new version in Chile, SPICT-ES(CH), determined stability and consistency over time, with a Pearson correlation coefficient (ρ) of 0.9167 (p < 0.0001). In the final application of the instrument, to fortify the psychometric evaluation (n = 292) we identified 53.4% positive SPICT-ES(CH). The logistical model via OR (< 0.001) showed that the items predicted the positivity of the instrument. The internal consistency obtained was 0.8662, confirming a correlation and intercorrelation between items. 100% of nurses evaluated the SPICT-ES(CH) as a useful and feasible instrument. CONCLUSION: SPICT-ES(CH) includes all the relevant indicators for adequate clinical identification of PC needs among the Chilean OA population, who could Benefit from the early introduction of palliative support contributing to their quality of life.