Communication in Clinical Practice, the Perspective of Patients with Cancer: Translation of the PACE (Patient Assessment of Cancer Communication Experiences) Questionnaire to European Portuguese

Authors

  • Isabel Macedo Almeida Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar. Universidade do Porto. Porto.
  • Isabel Silva Fonseca Serviço de Investigação Clínica. Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto. Porto. Unidade Multidisciplinar de Investigação Biomédica e Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia. Instituto de Saúde Pública (ISPUP). Universidade do Porto. Porto.
  • Diana Malheiro Mota Serviço de Psiquiatria. Centro Hospitalar de Gaia. Espinho. Portugal.
  • Idalina Brandão Beirão Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar. Universidade do Porto. Porto.Departamento de Ensino Pré-graduado. Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto. Porto.
  • Sara Mendes Moreira Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar. Universidade do Porto. Porto.Serviço de Psiquiatria e Saúde Mental/Serviço de Humanização. Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto. Porto.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20344/amp.14352

Keywords:

Health Communication, Patient-Centered Care, Physician-Patient Relations, Portugal, Quality Assurance, Health Care, Surveys and Questionnaires, Translating

Abstract

Introduction: Communication in clinical practice is essential to healthcare quality, especially in Oncology. The Patient Assessment of Communication Experiences questionnaire evaluates the perspective of cancer patients towards communication and identifies areas that can be improved. This study consists in its translation and validation to European Portuguese, to identify these areas.
Material and Methods: We performed a descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study. The translation was conducted according to the World Health Organization’s guidelines. We applied the questionnaires to a convenience sample, in patients under systemic antineoplastic treatment at the Day Hospital of Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto, between January and March 2020. We calculated the Cronbach’s Alpha for each phase of care, the bivariate and multiple correlations and, for each question, the percentage of “non applicable” and most positive answers.
Results: We had 100 participants. The instrument we obtained ha good internal consistency, but the classification of some questions does not correlate sufficiently with the global opinion about the experiences with communication in the respective phase. The diagnosis phase revealed a lower proportion of positive experiences, particularly in terms of receiving the bad news.
Conclusion: This study translates and validates part of the communication assessment instrument PACE to the Portuguese language and elicits the necessity to invest in the phase of diagnosis and disclosure of bad news.

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Published

2021-02-27

How to Cite

1.
Almeida IM, Fonseca IS, Mota DM, Beirão IB, Moreira SM. Communication in Clinical Practice, the Perspective of Patients with Cancer: Translation of the PACE (Patient Assessment of Cancer Communication Experiences) Questionnaire to European Portuguese. Acta Med Port [Internet]. 2021 Feb. 27 [cited 2024 Mar. 28];35(11):807-15. Available from: https://www.actamedicaportuguesa.com/revista/index.php/amp/article/view/14352

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