Resumen de Escala numérica para evaluar síntomas espirituales en cuidados paliativos
María Margarita Reyes, Liliana De Lima, Paulina Taboada R., Luis Villarroel del Pino, Juan de Dios Vial, Oscar Blanco, Rina González Rodríguez, Irene Parra, Gemita Toledo, Pilar Bonati Escobar, Flavio Nervi
Background: Spiritual issues are an important dimension of health care, but seldom addressed by professionals. Thus, a scale that assesses the presence and intensity of seven spiritual symptoms was developed. Aim: To validate the instrument in palliative care settings. Material and Methods: The spiritual symptoms scale was applied to 103 patients, aged 59 ± 17 years (58% women), admitted to hospice care in two centers located in Santiago. The reproducibility of the scale was evaluated in 33 patients and its internal consistency and liability in 70. Results: The Fleiss Kappa to assess reproducibility was 0.82 and the analysis of variance had a p of 0.94. Cronbach alpha to assess internal consistency was 0.74. Conclusions: The scale renders similar results when applied by different evaluators and has a good liability. Therefore, it can be a reliable instrument to assess spiritual symptoms in palliative care settings. Further studies would be needed to verify its utility in other settings.
