The schedule of attitudes toward hastened death: validation analysis in terminally ill cancer patients

The faithful translation of the English version of the Schedule of Attitudes toward Hastened Death (SAHD) into Greek and its validation as an assessment tool in terminally ill cancer patients receiving palliative treatment.

120 terminally ill cancer patients attending a Palliative Care Unit, at the University of Athens, Greece, between June 2003 and November 2003 for palliative treatment.

SAHD would be a useful instrument for measuring desire for hastened death with valid psychometric properties in a Greek cancer population. The SAHD demonstrated high reliability. Desire for hastened death was significantly associated with Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD) depression (r = 0.607, p < 0.0005) and substantially correlated with HAD anxiety (r = 0.502, p < 0.0005). "Pain intensity" had a moderate correlation with SAHD scores (r = 0.28, p = 0.01) and SAHD scores correlated significantly with "pain interference in mood" (r = 0.38, p = 0.01) and in "enjoyment of life" (r = 0.34, p = 0.03). SAHD correlation with quality of life was statistically significant (r = -0.38, p < 0.01) as was health status (r = -0.36, p < 0.01). Patients with a Poor Performance Status (from Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group scale) correlated significantly with high scores in SAHD (p = 0.038). Factor analysis supported the unidimentionality of the measurement.

SAHD could be a useful and valid instrument for measuring desire for hastened death in Greek terminally ill cancer patients.