ArticleBMJ supportive & palliative care2023
Family caregiver emotional distress in advanced cancer: the DME-C scale psychometric properties.
Article in BMJ supportive & palliative care, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Factors related to good death from the perspectives of informal caregivers of cancer patients: a systematic review.BMC palliative care · 2025Pooled it
- Attachment at the end of life: A systematic review.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Pooled it
- Evaluation of the impact of an interdisciplinary team scheduling model on psychological outcomes in patients with decompensated cirrhosis.World journal of hepatology · 2026Trial
- A systematic review on mindfulness-based immersive interventions in depressive disorders.Npj mental health research · 2026Review
- Comprehensive psychosocial and spiritual care of people with advanced chronic conditions: The experience of La Caixa foundation program at 15 years.Palliative & supportive care · 2026Article
- Structured Multidisciplinary Care for Clinically Complex Kidney Transplant Recipients: A 12-Month Single-Center Cohort on Multidimensional Outcomes.Journal of transplantation · 2026Article
- Psychological distress interventions for family members in palliative care: a scoping review.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Screening for Psychosocial Distress: A Brief Review with Implications for Oncology Nursing.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Behind the scenes of caregiving in patients with advanced cancer: A qualitative study on family caregivers.Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFamily caregivers of patients with advanced illness at end of life often report high levels of emotional distress. To address this emotional distress is necessary to have adequate and reliable screening tools.
aimThis study analyses the psychometric properties and clinical utility of the Family Caregiver Emotional Detection Scale for caregivers of patients with end-stage cancer (DME-C, Spanish acronym) who are receiving palliative care (PC).
designMulticentre, cross-sectional study. SETTINGS/
participantsFamily caregivers of patients with advanced cancer at end of life receiving palliative treatment were interviewed to explore their emotional distress through the DME-C scale and other instruments measuring anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)), distress thermometer (DT) and overload (B), as well as a clinical psychological assessment (CPA).
results138 family caregivers, 85 (61.6%) female and 53 (38.4%) male, with an average age of 59.69±13.3 participated in the study. The reliability of the scale, as measured by Cronbach's alpha, was 0.76, and its stability over time was 0.734. Positive, significant correlations were found between the DME-C and the scores for anxiety and depression registered on the HADS scale, as well as with the total result of this latter scale and the results for B, the DT and the CPA. A statistical analysis of the receiver-operating characteristic curves showed that the scale has a sensitivity and specificity of 75%, and that the cut-off point for the detection of emotional distress was a score ≥11. Fifty-four per cent of the caregivers displayed emotional distress according to this scale.
conclusionsThe DME-C displays good psychometric properties. It is simple, short, reliable and easy to administer. We believe that the instrument is useful for the detection of emotional distress in the family caregivers of hospitalised patients suffering from end-stage illnesses and receiving PC.
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