The James Supportive Care Screening: integrating science and practice to meet the NCCN guidelines for distress management at a Comprehensive Cancer Center

Abstract

Background Selecting a measure for oncology distress screening can be challenging. The measure must be brief, but comprehensive, capturing patients’ most distressing concerns. The measure must provide meaningful coverage of multiple domains, assess symptom and problem-related distress, and ideally be suited for both clinical and research purposes. Methods From March 2006 to August 2012, the James Supportive Care Screening (SCS) was developed and validated in three phases including content validation, factor analysis, and measure validation. Exploratory factor analyses were completed with 596 oncology patients followed by a confirmatory factor analysis with 477 patients. Results Six factors were identified and confirmed including (i) emotional concerns; (ii) physical symptoms; (iii) social/practical problems; (iv) spiritual problems; (v) cognitive concerns; and (vi) healthcare decision making/communication issues. Subscale evaluation reveals good to excellent internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and convergent, divergent, and predictive validity. Specificity of individual items was 0.90 and 0.87, respectively, for identifying patients with DSM-IV-TR diagnoses of major depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Conclusions Results support use of the James SCS to quickly detect the most frequent and distressing symptoms and concerns of cancer patients. The James SCS is an efficient, reliable, and valid clinical and research outcomes measure.

Validity and Reliability Study of James Supportive Care Screening for Cancer Patients

“…[32,33] In SCS, as the score increases, the level of distress also increases. [31] The meaningful relationships found at the research between the subscales of two scales in negative and positive correlation proves the statement in the literature that distress lowers the life quality. [8,12,38] The numbers of female volunteers participating in the research have been more than the number of male participants.…”

“…As SCS determines the distress being experienced, it focuses on the emotions. [31] It is thought that the reason why number of volunteer males participating in the research is lower than the number of female volunteers is due to the fact that men tend to express their emotions less than women do. [39][40][41] As the total score of SCS is analyzed per gender, it is found out that average distress score of women is higher than that of men.…”

Content comparison of unmet needs self‐report measures used in patients with head and neck cancer: A systematic review

“…The James Supportive Care Screening (JSCS) is a 45‐item measure developed to screen for the most distressing concerns of oncology patients. The six domains covered are emotional concerns, physical symptoms, social/practical problems, spiritual concerns, cognitive concerns, and health care decision‐making/communication . JSCS was developed with a mixed cancer group including some patients with HNC.…”

“…Cronbach alpha (0.93) and test‐retest reliability (0.73) have been established as acceptable to excellent . Convergent validity demonstrated high correlations between JSCS and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES‐D) and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and divergent validity demonstrated low correlations with Brief Pain Inventory . Item reduction was based on frequency ratings and factor analysis .…”

“…Convergent validity demonstrated high correlations between JSCS and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES‐D) and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and divergent validity demonstrated low correlations with Brief Pain Inventory . Item reduction was based on frequency ratings and factor analysis . When mapped against our conceptual framework, JSCS covered 83% of content relevant to HNC, failing to include items for activities of daily living and dental needs.…”