Assessing the quality of care for dying patients from the bereaved relatives' perspective: further validation of “Evaluating Care and Health Outcomes–for the Dying”

Mayland, Catriona R., Williams, Evelyn M.I., Addington-Hall, Julia, Cox, Trevor F. and Ellershaw, John E. (2013) Assessing the quality of care for dying patients from the bereaved relatives' perspective: further validation of “Evaluating Care and Health Outcomes–for the Dying”. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. (doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2013.05.013). (PMID:24210451)

Abstract

Context: evaluating Care and Health Outcomes–for the Dying (ECHO-D) is a post-bereavement questionnaire that assesses quality of care for the dying and is linked with the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP).

Objectives: to further assess the validity and reliability of the ECHO-D, namely the construct validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability of key composite scales.

Methods: self-completion questionnaires were mailed to 778 next-of-kin of consecutive deceased patients who had died an “expected” cancer death in a hospice or acute tertiary hospital. For those willing to complete ECHO-D for a second time, another copy was sent a month later. Maximum likelihood factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha test were conducted for four key composite scales. Test-retest reliability was assessed using percentage agreement, Kappa statistic, and Spearman's correlation coefficient (ordinal data). Comparisons between hospice and hospital groups were conducted using one-way between-groups analysis of variance.

Results: following exclusions (n = 52), 255 of 726 next-of-kin agreed to participate (35.2% response rate). Maximum likelihood factor analysis showed a single factor for three of the scales, and all had good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha >0.78). Barring two questions, all showed good or moderate stability over time. Overall, hospice participants reported the best quality of care, and hospital participants, where care was not supported by the LCP, reported the worst quality of care.

Conclusion: these findings support ECHO-D as a valid and reliable instrument to assess quality of care for the dying and assess the effectiveness of interventions such as the LCP

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Download statistics