Patient Satisfaction with and Acceptance of Their Totally-Implanted Central Venous Catheter: Construction and First Validation of a Questionnaire

Abstract

Rationale: Most cancer patients require a totally-implanted Central Venous Catheter (CVC) for their treatment. We develop and validate a French-language questionnaire dubbed QASICC (Questionnaire for Acceptance of and Satisfaction with Implanted Central Venous Catheter) assessing patient satisfaction with and acceptance of their CVC. Method: The construction and first validation of the questionnaire was made using validated methodology consisting in four phases. Phase 1 aimed at collecting a comprehensive list of relevant items. Phase 2 consisted in converting items into questions followed by a first item selection procedure. Phase 3 tested the acceptance of the provisional module to a small number of patients. Phase 4 involved a first validation on patients to determine its psychometric characteristics. Results: Responses to the questionnaire were collected from 215 patients. The final tool included 27 questions assessing seven dimensions: pain, contribution to the comfort of the treatment, esthetics and privacy, impact on professional activities, social and sports, impact on daily activities, local discomfort and overall satisfaction. Conclusions: This first statistical validation seems very promising and allows us to confirm the structure and the psychometric properties of the tool. Further validation studies are required on standard and specific populations in order to confirm these first results.

Patient Satisfaction and Acceptance of Their Totally Implanted Central Venous Catheter: A French Prospective Multicenter Study

“…We first conducted a study on 215 patients in order to construct a specific self-administered questionnaire dubbed QASICC (Questionnaire for Acceptance of, and Satisfaction with, Implanted Central Venous Catheter) including 27 items focused on 7 dimensions (10). We then reduced the initial QASICC questionnaire to design a new version comprising 22 items grouped into 5 dimensions, which was validated on 998 patients (11). The aim of the present multicenter prospective study was to evaluate patient satisfaction with, and acceptance of, their TIVAD in a large population of cancer patients using this previously validated, multidimensional, self-administered questionnaire.…”

Protocol for a systematic review and thematic synthesis of patient experiences of central venous access devices in anti-cancer treatment

“…In addition, to our knowledge, there are no validated or standardised measures relating to patient experiences of CVADs in common usage. For instance, one such measure recently developed in France (specific to Port devices) [ 11 ] has to date been used in a single pilot study [ 12 ]. Consequently, we anticipate significant heterogeneity with regard to quantitative outcomes, and these data will not be quantitatively synthesised.…”

Quality-of-Life Assessment: Arm TIVAD versus Chest TIVAD

“…There are no standardized, validated, tools that have been deployed in a clinical setting. Marcy et al (2), have recently published findings about their development, and validation, of a quality-of-life survey for patients with venous access devices. Their project began with a large number of patient questions that they tested, revised and shortened to 27 questions in total.…”

“…They felt that this survey tool required further testing and utilization for more specific patient groups in order to assess the utility and value of their work. Also, the majority of their work was done in French and then translated into English, which also will require further testing and analysis (2).…”

“…This questionnaire was entitled, Quality of Life Assessment, Venous Device - Port (QLAVD-P). This questionnaire was created by a group of interventional radiologists in consultation with a medical oncologist by incorporating some of the questions used by Marcy et al (2), and by developing unique local content to result in the QLAVD-P. The QLAVD-P comprised 32 questions.…”