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.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Loureiro E, Severo M, Ferreira MA. Attitudes of Portuguese medical residents’ towards clinical communication skills. Patient Educ Couns. 2015;98:1039-43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2015.04.009

Loureiro E, Ferreira MA, Fresta M, Ismail M, Rehman SU, Broome M. Teaching and assessment of clinical communication skills: lessons learned from a SWOT analysis of Portuguese Angolan and Mozambican medical education. Porto Biomed J. 2017;2:47-58. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbj.2016.12.005

Schöpf AC, von Hirschhausen M, Farin E, Maun A. Elderly patients’ and GPs’ perspectives of patient – GP communication concerning

polypharmacy: a qualitative interview study. Prim Health Care Res Dev. 2018;19:355-64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1463423617000883

Evers S, Hsu C, Sherman KJ, Balderson B, Hawkes R, Brewer G, et al. Patient perspectives on communication with primary care physicians about chronic low back pain. Perm J. 2017;21:11-5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/16-177

van Vliet LM, Epstein AS. Current state of the art and science of patientclinician communication in progressive disease: patients’ need to know and need to feel known. J Clin Oncol. 2014;32:3474-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2014.56.0425

Clever SL, Jin L, Levinson W, Meltzer DO. Does doctor – patient communication affect patient satisfaction with hospital care? Results

of an analysis with a novel instrumental variable. Health Serv Res. 2008;43:1505-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2008.00849.x

Haskard-Zolnierek KB, DiMatteo MR. Physician communication and patient adherence to treatment: a meta-analysis. Med Care.

;47:826-34.

Custódio M, Grilo A, Andrade G, Guimarães T, Gomes A. Comunicação em saúde e a segurança do doente: problemas e desafios. Rev Port Saúde Pública. 2010;28:47-57.

Chandra S, Mohammadnezhad M, Ward P. Trust and communication in a doctor- patient relationship: a literature review. J Health Commun. 2018;3:1-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4172/2472-1654.100146

Gopichandran V, Chetlapalli SK. Trust in the physician – patient relationship in developing healthcare settings: a quantitative exploration. Indian J Med Ethics. 2015;12:141-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20529/IJME.2015.043

Travado L, Grassi L, Gil F, Ventura C, Martins C, SEPOS Group. Physician-patient communication among southern European cancer

physicians: the influence of psychosocial orientation and burnout. Psychooncology. 2005;14:661-70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.890

Ramirez AJ, Graham J, Richards MA, Cull A, Gregory W, Leaning MS, et al. Burnout and psychiatric disorder among cancer clinicians. Br J Cancer. 1995;71:1263-9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1995.244

Ramirez AJ, Graham J, Richards MA, Cull A, Gregory WM. Mental health of hospital consultants: the effects of stress and satisfaction at work. Lancet. 1996;347:724-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(96)90077-X

Mazor KM, Beard RL, Alexander GL, Arora NK, Firneno C, Gaglio B, et al. Patients’ and family members’ views on patient-centered

communication during cancer care. Psychooncology. 2013;22:2487-95. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.3317

Street RL, Spears E, Madrid S, Mazor KM. Cancer survivors’ experiences with breakdowns in patient-centered communication. Psychooncology. 2019;28:423-9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.4963

Mack JW, Fasciano KM, Block SD. Communication about prognosis with adolescent and young adult patients with cancer: Information needs, prognostic awareness, and outcomes of disclosure. J Clin Oncol. 2018;36:1861-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2018.78.2128

Gonçalves F, Marques Á, Rocha S, Leitão P, Mesquita T, Moutinho S. Breaking bad news: experiences and preferences of advanced cancer patients at a Portuguese oncology centre. Palliat Med. 2005;19:526-31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1191/0269216305pm1070oa

Jones LJ, Pini SA, Morgan SJ, Birk GK, Stark DP. How do teenagers and young adults with cancer experience their care? A European survey. J Adolesc Young Adult Oncol. 2017;6:102-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/jayao.2016.0011

Mazor KM, Street RL, Sue VM, Williams AE, Rabin BA, Arora NK. Assessing patients’ experiences with communication across the cancer care continuum. Patient Educ Couns. 2016;99:1343-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2016.03.004

World Health Organization. Management of substance abuse, process of translation and adaptation of instruments. [consultado 2019 jun 20]. Disponível em: https://www.who.int/substance_abuse/research_tools/translation/en/.

Cohen J. A power primer. Psychol Bull. 1992;112:155-9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155

Terwee CB, Bot SD, de Boer MR, van der Windt AW, Knol DL, Dekker J, et al. Quality criteria were proposed for measurement properties of health status questionnaires. J Clin Epidemiol. 2007;60:34-42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2006.03.012

Mystakidou K, Parpa E, Tsilika E, Katsouda E, Vlahos L. Cancer information disclosure in different cultural contexts. Support Care

Cancer. 2004;12:147-54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-003-0552-7

Mazor KM, Gaglio B, Nekhlyudov L, Alexander GL, Stark A, Hornbook MC, et al. Assessing patient-centered communication in cancer care: stakeholder perspectives. J Oncol Pract. 2013;9:e186-93. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1200/JOP.2012.000772

Oliveira L, Fernandes M, Santos Z, Bastos H, Cabral A. Cancer diagnosis disclosure from Portuguese physicians. Palliat Support Care.

;13:1031-6.

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 Nov. 23];35(11):807-15. Available from: https://actamedicaportuguesa.com/revista/index.php/amp/article/view/14352

Issue

Section

Original