Abstract
Spiritual distress may ascend from unmet spiritual needs. The use of instruments to measure spiritual distress seems to facilitate the approach to spirituality, such as the Spiritual Distress Scale (SDS) that has been used worldwide. No instrument to assess spiritual distress in cancer patients is currently available in Portugal. This study aims to conduct the translation, adaptation and validation of the SDS in Portuguese cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Methodological study based on Sousa and Rojjanasrirat (2011), a seven-step approach, started with the linguistic translation to the psychometric tests. The main participants (55.4%) were older than 60 years; about 64.7% were females, married (68.0%), and 86.7% were Catholic. Moderate spiritual distress was experienced by 49.3% of the participants. Linguistic and conceptual equivalences were obtained. The SDS European Portuguese version has an overall Cronbach’s alpha of 0.91, and the subscales were as follows: “relationship with self” (0.92), “relationship with others” (0.63), “relationship with God” (0.64) and “facing death” (0.85). Four factors emerged after Varimax rotation. Overall, these results indicate that the SDS European Portuguese version has good psychometric characteristics and can used in assessing spiritual distress in cancer patients.
Highlights
Spiritual distress is a deep and intimate experience, shrouded in great suffering from the patients (Martins and Caldeira 2018)
This study aims to conduct the translation, adaptation and validation of the psychometric properties of the Portuguese European version of the Spiritual Distress Scale (SDS) in cancer patients
The methodological approach used was the guideline by Sousa and Rojjanasrirat (2011), that is a seven-step approach these authors developed for translation, adaptation and validation of instruments or scales for use in cross-cultural health care research
Summary
Spiritual distress is a deep and intimate experience, shrouded in great suffering from the patients (Martins and Caldeira 2018). Spiritual distress arises when an individual experiences suffering that challenges the sense of purpose and personal identity (Caldeira et al 2017). According to Caldeira et al (2013) the prevalence of spiritual distress is 40.8% in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. High scores of depression have been associated with spiritual distress (Kopacz et al 2015; Velosa et al 2017) and risk for suicide (Kopacz et al 2015). Nurses often describe difficulty in addressing spiritual distress mainly because of perceiving a lack of education or experience, as well as failure to listen deeply and respond empathically to patients’. Spiritual distress (00066) is a nursing diagnosis listed in NANDA International, Inc.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
