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<p>Good Death Scale (GDS) is a provider assessment scale of quality of dying of terminally ill cancer patients, and its reliability and validity has been confirmed. The aim of this study is translating the GDS into Japanese (GDS-J) according to the standard methods of conducting linguistic validation. In the forward translation, there was a disagreement in the translation of “will” into Japanese translation of “will” of GDS question 3 “Has the patient arranged everything according to his/her own will?” We confirmed linguistic validity in the research team and eventually got approval from the original author in writing and decided on GDS-J. Using the GDS-J, a quality assessment scale for palliative care by provider, it will be possible to evaluate the quality of palliative care to be done by themselves and to be expected to be useful for providing higher-quality palliative care.</p>
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<p>Purpose: To clarify the factors that affect the family caregiver’s quality of life (QOL) of cancer patients. Methods: We conducted an internet survey including 21 items of the Japanese version CQOLC for 400 families of cancer patients in March 2012. Results: Factors that increased psychological burden were that caregivers were women, other family needed long-term care, and the patient had higher need for care. Factors that increased the family caregiver’s difficulty in their daily activities due to long-term care were caregivers are women, other family needed long-term care, caregivers did not think they had a good relationship with the patient, and the patient had higher need for care. Factors that increased financial burden were that the age of caregivers was less than 60 years, decreased of income after the patient’s diagnosis, and patients were men. Factors that increase the positive feeling for caregiving were that caregivers thought they had good relationship with the patient, and the patient’s need for care was higher. Conclusions: To reduce the burden in family caregiver of cancer patients without losing the positive feeling for caregiving would be important for both improving the family caregiver’s QOL, and to continue the care for patient in long term. </p>
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<p>The modified Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS) seems to be one of the best monitoring indicators for palliative sedation. We translated the modified RASS into Japanese according to the standard methods of conducting linguistic validation. The modified RASS revised two points from the original RASS for use in palliative care setting: deleted the description about the ventilator, and added some descriptions to clarify the meaning of RASS+1. In addition, we have deleted the description “rubbing sternum” in the procedure for RASS assessment, and then translated the modified RASS into Japanese. The translators and our research team members repeatedly discussed the linguistic validity until we agreed that the translated Japanese version is equivalent to the English one. The use of the Japanese version of the modified RASS to monitor palliative sedation may help to perform appropriate, and safe palliative sedation.</p>
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Japanese version of the Constitution in Chinese Medicine Questionnaire (CCMQ-J) in Chinese consists of 60 items for 9 sub-scales called Gentleness, Qi-deficiency, Yang-deficiency, Yin-deficiency, Phlegm-wetness, Wet-heat, Blood-stasis, Qi-depression, and Special diathesis. Each question is answered by choosing one form 5 grades of a Likert scale where the grades from 1 to 5 corresponding to Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often and Always, respectively. In the present study, we examined the relationship of scores based on 597 respondents to 60 items. We tentatively classified 60 items into 12 groups by utilizing the Ward’s hierarchical clustering method and discussed similarity of items and 9 body conditions. Body Mass Index (BMI) and age can be explained by the score of 60 items by partial least square model. Significantly high correlation coefficients between real and estimated values were obtained for BMI (0.81 for male and 0.82 for female) and age (0.82 for male and 0.83 for female). Those results indicate that the answers to the 60 items can reflect aging and BMI properties and CCMQ-J can be used to assess the situation of health for evaluating the actual aging conditions in human.
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Objectives: The present study was aimed at constructing the Japanese version of the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire for breast cancer (Brief IPQ-JBC), for use with Japanese middle- and early old-aged women who had not previously undergone mammography. We also examined the psychometric properties of the translated instrument. Methods: Patients were 824 middle- and early old-aged women living in all parts of Japan, who completed surveys on the Internet in January 2014. Of these, 282 had not previously undergone mammography and were included in this study, completing the Internet survey again, six months later, in July 2014.The participants were evaluated on the basis of a battery of questionnaires comprising demographic details, the tentative version of the Brief IPQ-JBC, the Japanese version of the Illness Perception Questionnaire (J-IPQ), Self-Directedness subscale from the Japanese version of the Temperament and Character Inventory-125 items, perceived breast cancer risk, and anticipated worry about breast cancer. Results: The Brief IPQ-JBC was found to have good long-term test-retest reliability, as well as concurrent validity with the J-IPQ. The scale also showed good construct validity, based on the results of a path model using structural equation modeling, thus supporting the theoretical perspective of the common-sense model of self-regulation. Conclusion: We have validated the Brief-JBC in a sample of Japanese middle- and earlyold-aged women and believe our results will be useful for subsequent research.
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The aim of the present study is to characterize the burden of parents who care for their children with disabilities with the use of a Japanese version of the Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview (J-ZBI) that has been successfully used to quantify the caregiver burden for caring for the disabled elderly. We performed a survey in which questionnaires including the J-ZBI (adapted for the subjects of this study) were given to 135 parents of children in a school for the physically challenged. We obtained 69 valid responses. For the parents, the mean J-ZBI score was 25.6 points and the mean CES-D score was 10.8 points. A lowered QOL for these parents was suggested by the finding that the mean SF-36 score was lower than for other persons of the same year and age in Japan. The parents reported physical strain more frequently than mental stress as the main caregiver burden. According to the parent group's mean J-ZBI score, we classified them into either a heavier or a lighter burden group. The parents who were in a state of depression as judged by the CES-D were more frequently found in the heavier burden group, while those with children who showed complete or modified independence in more items of FIM were more frequent in the lighter burden group. Services to support the physical aspects of parents caring for children with disabilities would reduce their caregiver burden effectively.
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<b>Purpose</b>: The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of informing patients of the endpoints of palliative chemotherapy on the quality of care for terminally ill cancer patients. <b>Methods</b>: Of 85 advanced cancer patients who died at our hospital during the last 2 years, 53 patients who received palliative chemotherapy were recruited for this study. The patients were divided into three groups based on whether disease status and treatment endpoints were explained to the patient before the chemotherapy: group A; both the disease status and treatment endpoint were explained, group B; only the disease status was explained, and group C; neither were explained.Japanese version of Support Team Assessment Schedule (STAS-J) was used to evaluate the quality of care for the patients. <b>Results</b>: Of the 53 patients, 17, 22, and 14 cases were assigned to group A, group B, and group C, respectively. Changing gear, that is, stopping palliative chemotherapy followed by palliative care, was well accepted by 88%, 41%, and 0% of group A, B, and C patients, respectively (p<0.01). By using the STAS-J, it was revealed that there were no significant differences in either symptom control or in anxiety among the groups, but there were significant differences in insight of advanced disease and communication to others (p<0.001). <b>Conclusion</b>: When performing palliative chemotherapy in advanced cancer patients, they should be informed of its endpoint before beginning the chemotherapy. This will lead to successful ′changing gear, ′ and improvement of the quality of care for terminally ill cancer patients.