Caregivers' Communication with Patients about Illness and Death: Initial Validation of a Scale

Abstract

Caregivers of terminal cancer patients experience substantial communication difficulties with their loved ones about their illness. Existing communication scales focus on communication as perceived by the patient and do not include items that refer to his close death. The current study describes the development and initial validation of an instrument aimed at measuring caregivers' communication with patients about their illness and death. Two hundred thirty-six bereaved primary caregivers of cancer patients were recruited over a period of 18 months. The psychometric properties of the scale were explored by confirmatory factor analysis. Results provided support for a one factor solution. The discriminant and convergent validity of the responses to the scale were also supported. Future studies should further establish the validity of the scale with larger sample sizes and different populations of caregivers of patients with other terminal diseases.