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Palliative CareNCT02664402

Tool to Assess Psycho-Social-Spiritual Healing: Cognitive Interviewing

An observational study of Palliative Care and Critical Illness, run by National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC) at 1 site in United States.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

Background: People undergo many changes when they have a life-threatening illness. Their values may change. They may have less fear of illness and death. They may become more spiritual. Researchers made a questionnaire called HEALS (Healing Experience During All Life Stressors). Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 years and older
Conditions the study is for
Palliative Care, Critical Illness
How many people
30 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
5 Jan 2017to 5 Jan 2017
Phase
Observational
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 years and older
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Study population: A purposive sample of 30 participants were recruited from patients with scheduled appointments at the palliative care clinic or inpatients at 3 locations: l)Mobile Medical Care, Rockville, MD, 2) Suburban Hospital, Bethesda, MD, 3)NIH Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD.

Who may be able to join

  • Adults age greater than or equal to 18 years. The instrument under study for validation in this protocol is a self-assessment specifically designed for adult populations. Adults above the age of 18 are able to use logic, deductive reasoning, think more about the world / environment and has an understanding and ability to apply abstract ideas, which are all necessary for retrospective cognitive processes
  • Understand and speak English
  • Oriented to person, time and place at time of interview
  • Physician diagnosed with life threatening illness
  • 91+ days post diagnosis of life threatening illness
  • Receiving inpatient or outpatient palliative care at NIH Clinical Center, inpatient palliative Care at Suburban Hospital, and NIH outpatient palliative care provided at the Mobile Medical Care Clinic

Who cannot join

  • Patients with known brain metastases will be excluded because of their poor prognosis and because they often develop progressive neurologic dysfunction that would confound the evaluation of the assessment questions
  • Inability to provide informed consent
  • Inability to meet inclusion criteria

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

United States1 site
  • National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

    Bethesda, Maryland, 20892

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Analysis of A Tool to Assess Psycho Social Spiritual Healing: Cognitive Interviewing

Background:

People undergo many changes when they have a life-threatening illness. Their values may change. They may have less fear of illness and death. They may become more spiritual. Researchers made a questionnaire called HEALS (Healing Experience During All Life Stressors). They want to use it to better understand these positive changes. They hope to provide better care for people with serious illnesses.

Read more

Objectives:

To develop the HEALS tool to better understand psycho-social-spiritual healing in people with serious illnesses. Also, to find out how palliative care services help people handle their illness or stress.

Eligibility:

Adults at least 18 years old at least 91 days after being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. They must be getting:

Inpatient or outpatient palliative care at NIH Clinical Center OR

Inpatient palliative care at Suburban Hospital OR

NIH outpatient palliative care provided at Mobile Medical Care Clinic

Design:

Participants will be screened with questions to make sure they are eligible.

Participants will have 1 individual research session. This will be at the NIH Clinical Center.

Participants will be interviewed by a research team member. They will be asked about changes in a person s way of living that might happen during or after a serious illness.

Participants will be asked for their thoughts and opinions about the questions. They will be asked what ideas they may have to make the questions better.

Interviews will be audiotaped.

Participants will be asked some questions specific to their care location and team. These are to better understand how their services are helping participants.

...

Read the detailed description

Background:

We identify healing in the context of chronic or life-threatening illness as a patient-reported outcome consisting of growth or benefit in psychological, social and/or spiritual dimensions representing improvement well above the patient s pre-morbidity baseline. This positive outcome often occurs despite substantial suffering during the illness, even in terminal cases. Current literature reflects numerous studies suggesting that psychological, social, and/or spiritual dimensions influence positive patient health outcomes and affects overall quality of life. This trend parallels a movement to understand how a difficult experience, such as a cancer diagnosis for example, may help facilitate positive growth, also referred to as healing. Although attention to positive growth/healing in the treatment of life limiting illness is increasing, a psychometrically sound instrument that assesses psycho-social-spiritual (PSS) growth as a means to healing does not exist. The ability to assess healing will allow improvements in programs aimed at helping individuals make positive personal changes in their health-related behavior (our larger program on healing). Content analysis of this contributes to construct validity of the assessment and brings us closer to creating a psychometrically sound measure of psycho- social spiritual healing.

This swill use cognitive interviewing to examine item performance of the NIH HEALS Assessment (healing experience during all life stressors) tool.

Objectives:

Primary Objective

  • To continue with instrument development of a tool to assess an individual s progression toward psycho-social spiritual healing by evaluating the participant s understanding of questionnaire items through a cognitive interviewing technique.
  • Examine differences in the understanding of questionnaire items between the three recruitment sites.

Eligibility:

  • Age greater than or equal to 18 years old
  • Understand and speak English
  • Physician diagnosed with a life threatening illness
  • 91+ days post diagnosis of life threatening illness
  • Receiving inpatient or/ outpatient palliative care at NIH Clinical Center inpatient palliative Care at Suburban Hospital, and NIH outpatient palliative care provided at the Mobile Medical Care Clinic

Design:

  • Exploratory descriptive study using mix-methods
  • Cognitive interviews using retrospective probing in a purposive sample with three rounds of 10 for a total maximum sample of 30 participants, with the completion of content analysis after each round of 10 to inform content and clarity of question items.
Keywords
Palliative Care, Pain, Community Health, Natural History
Medical subject headings
Critical Illness, Pain

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

Study groups in NCT02664402
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
AdultsEnglish speaking, physician diagnosed with a life threatening illness.

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. NIH HEALS Assessment

    Newly developed 49-item questionnaire being evaluated for participant understanding of each item included in questionnaire.

    Measured: Present

Secondary outcomes (1)
  1. Risk Assessment for Barriers to Palliative Care

    Questions from this assessment will help healthcare providers complete a needs assessment with the patient and caregiver in order to better understand patient needs and to identify barriers to using palliative care in a low-income population

    Measured: present

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted27 Jan 2016 (estimated)
  2. Study start5 Jan 2017
  3. Primary completion5 Jan 2017
  4. Study completion5 Jan 2017

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Observational
Observational model
Case only
Time perspective
Cross-sectional
Enrolment
30 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT02664402
Sponsor's protocol ID
160056
Other IDs
16-CC-0056
Status last verified
Apr 2023
First submitted
26 Jan 2016
Last updated
14 Apr 2023
Results posted
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No

Publications

  • Egnew TR. The meaning of healing: transcending suffering. Ann Fam Med. 2005 May-Jun;3(3):255-62. doi: 10.1370/afm.313.

    PubMed 15928230
  • Denz-Penhey H, Murdoch C. Personal resiliency: serious diagnosis and prognosis with unexpected quality outcomes. Qual Health Res. 2008 Mar;18(3):391-404. doi: 10.1177/1049732307313431.

    PubMed 18235162
  • Lyckholm LJ, Coyne PJ, Kreutzer KO, Ramakrishnan V, Smith TJ. Barriers to effective palliative care for low-income patients in late stages of cancer: report of a study and strategies for defining and conquering the barriers. Nurs Clin North Am. 2010 Sep;45(3):399-409. doi: 10.1016/j.cnur.2010.03.007. Epub 2010 May 10.

    PubMed 20804885

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of Palliative Care and Critical Illness, run by National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC) at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 6 inclusion and 3 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 14 Apr 2023. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

NIH HEALS Assessment (time frame: Present). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT02664402, which also lists 3 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 14 Apr 2023.

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