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Validation of the Proxy Version of Symptom Screening in Pediatrics Tool in Children Receiving Cancer Treatments

Shannon Hyslop1, L Lee Dupuis2, Christina Baggott3

  • 1Program in Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
|April 10, 2018
PubMed

Insights

The Symptom Screening in Pediatrics Tool (SSPedi) is a reliable and valid proxy-report for assessing symptoms in children with cancer and following HSCT. This tool aids in symptom assessment when children cannot self-report.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Oncology
  • Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
  • Clinical Assessment Tools

Background:

  • Accurate symptom assessment is crucial for pediatric cancer and HSCT patients.
  • Proxy-reporting tools are needed when children cannot self-report symptoms due to illness or treatment.
  • The Symptom Screening in Pediatrics Tool (SSPedi) is a potential proxy-report instrument.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the interrater reliability and validity of the proxy-report Symptom Screening in Pediatrics Tool (SSPedi).
  • To assess SSPedi's utility in children with cancer and pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients.
  • To describe the interrater reliability of individual SSPedi items.

Main Methods:

  • Recruited 439 child-parent/guardian pairs across two groups: more symptomatic (active cancer treatment, hospitalized) and less symptomatic (maintenance or completed treatment).
  • Assessed convergent validity by comparing proxy-reported SSPedi scores with child self-reported scales for mucositis, nausea/vomiting, and pain.
  • Evaluated discriminant validity by comparing SSPedi scores between symptomatic groups and assessed interrater reliability for each SSPedi item.

Main Results:

  • The mean SSPedi score difference between more and less symptomatic groups was 8.2 (95% CI 6.6-9.8).
  • All hypothesized validity relationships were observed.
  • Interrater reliability for SSPedi items ranged from 0.34 (problems with thinking) to 0.80 (diarrhea).

Conclusions:

  • The proxy-report SSPedi demonstrates reliability and validity in children aged 8-18 with cancer and HSCT recipients.
  • Findings support the use of SSPedi in clinical settings for children unable to self-report symptoms.
  • Future research should focus on integrating proxy-reported symptom assessment into routine clinical practice.
Abstract

Keywords:
Symptom screeningchildrenhematopoietic stem cell transplantationoncologyreliabilityvalidity

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