Palliative home care research requires a brief instrument to measure patients' symptoms. This study investigates psychometric properties of CAMPAS-R, a new instrument for prospectively monitoring patients' symptoms during palliative home care. Using 10 cm visual analogue scales CAMPAS-R measures severity and interference of: pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation, fatigue, breathlessness, anxiety, depression. CAMPAS-Rwas piloted for face and content validity and then administered alongside criterion measures to a sample of palliative home care patients. Criterion related validity was tested by non-parametric correlation with Brief Pain Inventory, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and EORTC QLQ-C30. Predictive validity was assessed by relating CAMPAS-R scores to survival. 109 patients were recruited. The prevalence of symptoms was high (e.g. fatigue 92%; pain 77%).
Criterion validity: Data are correlations with criterion measure for severity and interference respectively (all p<0.01); pain r=0.87 r=0.82; breathlessness r=0.91 r=0.89; constipation 0.87 0.84 fatigue 0.64 0.65 nausea r=0.83 r=0.65; vomiting r=0.48 r=0.31 patient anxiety r=0.63 r=0.66;depression r-=0.56 r=0.55.
Predictive validity: There were significant differences between 60 day survivors and those who had died by then on severity of pain and fatigue and for interference ratings of pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation and depression. CAMPAS-R is acceptable to patients, family and primary care professionals. It is a valid, reliable instrument, which is easy to score. A great strength of CAMPAS-R is its potential use as a patient held record. The simple VAS format, is intuitively attractive to patients. The tool is easy to use and can be completed in approximately 5 minutes. It will permit us to collect data prospectively from seriously ill patients- something that has to a large degree eluded researchers in palliative home care to date.