Validation of Distress Thermometer for palliative care

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Validation of the Distress Thermometer (DT) in a palliative care population

• IRAS ID

  209831

• Contact name

  Martin Dempster

• Contact email

  m.dempster@qub.ac.uk

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 5 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  Distress is commonly unrecognised in medical environments, including palliative care settings. Yet, if recognised, distress can be successfully treated even in patients with only 4-6 weeks left to live.
  The best method of detecting psychological distress is through clinical diagnostic interviews. However, these interviews require a lot of time and effort, and are not practical in many settings such as palliative and end of life care. Thus, screening tools are used to detect those most likely to need further assessment. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is one of the most commonly used screening tools, and is excellent at detecting patients who need further support and assessment. As the number of patients screened and referred for psychological problems increases, demand has increased for quicker screening tools. While they were not as valid as longer tools, clinicians have reported that shorter tests are more appropriate for some groups of patients, such as palliative care patients.
  One such short screening tool is the Distress Thermometer (DT). The DT is an 11 point scale presented visually as a thermometer. Patients indicate how distressed they have felt over the past week, from 0 (Not distressed) to 10 (Severely distressed). The DT is used worldwide, and for many different patient groups. However, depending on the type of patient group, there are different ‘cut-offs’ used to indicate significant distress.

  Due to its shorter length, the DT may be a more appropriate screening tool for distress in a palliative care population than the HADS. However, we do not know what the most appropriate cut-off is for this patient group.
  The current project will identify the most appropriate cut-off for the identification of clinically significant distress in a palliative care population, using existing data collected in the course of routine care by a palliative care provider.

• REC name

  HSC REC A

• REC reference

  17/NI/0036

• Date of REC Opinion

  3 Mar 2017

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion