Abstract
PurposeThe 15- and 10-item short forms of the Singapore Caregiver Quality of Life Scale (SCQOLS-15 and SCQOLS-10) were recently developed as a quick assessment of caregiver quality of life. Reference values describing the distribution of the total and domain scores are available for the full-length version, but they are not yet available for the short forms. This study aimed to estimate the reference values for the short forms.MethodsData from a cross-sectional survey of 612 family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer in Singapore were fitted in quantile regression models. Percentiles were estimated by regressing the short forms’ scores on caregiver characteristics. Classification by the reference values for the short forms and the full-length version were compared and agreement was evaluated.ResultsThe caregiver’s role in caring for the patient and the patient’s performance status were associated with the percentiles of the total scores and most domain scores (each Bonferroni-adjusted p-value, PB, < 0.05). Higher-educated caregivers were categorized into higher percentiles according to the SCQOLS-15 and SCQOLS-10 total scores and the SCQOLS-15 Mental Well-being and Financial Well-being domain scores (each PB < 0.05). Ethnicity was associated with the SCQOLS-15 Physical Well-being and Experience & Meaning domains (each PB < 0.05). The percentiles for the short forms showed moderate to substantial agreement with those for the full-length version in terms of classifying caregivers into percentile intervals (quadratic-weighted Kappa = 0.72 to 0.92).ConclusionReference values for the SCQOLS-15 and SCQOLS-10 were estimated in relation to caregiver characteristics to facilitate interpretation of the short form scores.
Highlights
Cancer is a major chronic disease that affects patients and imposes burden and stress on family caregivers, leading to deterioration in caregiver quality of life (QoL)
There has been a shortage of caregiver QoL measurement scales, especially for Asian populations [1,2,3]
Comparison between quantile regression and the conventional approach To compare the performance between quantile regression and the conventional approach of developing reference percentiles for a subgroup using only the observations from the subgroup, we present the predicted percentiles of the Singapore Caregiver Quality of Life Scale (SCQOLS)-15 QoL total score for four subgroups of caregivers as an illustration
Summary
Cancer is a major chronic disease that affects patients and imposes burden and stress on family caregivers, leading to deterioration in caregiver quality of life (QoL). West were inadequate for use in the Asian population [4]. To fill this gap, the Singapore Caregiver Quality of Life Scale (SCQOLS) was developed among family caregivers of cancer patients in Singapore [3]. The SCQOLS is a 51-item questionnaire containing 5 domains [3]. Two short forms have been assessed for their validity and reliability, Lee et al Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes (2021) 5:17 namely the SCQOLS-15 and the SCQOLS-10 [7]. They contain 15 and 10 items, respectively. The questionnaires are available to the public (https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/lcpc/resources/scqolsrequest-forms)
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