Use of an Item Bank to Develop Two Short-Form FAMCARE Scales to Measure Family Satisfaction With Care in the Setting of Serious Illness.

ABSTRACT:

Context

Family satisfaction is an important and commonly used research measure. Yet current measures of family satisfaction are lengthy and may be unnecessarily burdensome--particularly in the setting of serious illness.

Objectives

To use an item bank to develop short forms of the Family Satisfaction with End-of-Life Care (FAMCARE) scale, which measures family satisfaction with care.

Methods

To shorten the existing 20-item FAMCARE measure, item response theory parameters from an item bank were used to select the most informative items. The psychometric properties of the new short-form scales were examined. The item bank was based on data from family members from an ethnically diverse sample of 1983 patients with advanced cancer.

Results

Evidence for the new sho

SUBMITTER: Ornstein KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4441836 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature