Project Details
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Validation of the questionnaire "Care of the Dying Evaluation (CODE)" for relatives of deceased patients in Germany

Subject Area Biogerontology and Geriatric Medicine
Term from 2015 to 2018
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 278396063
 
The objective of this project is to validate the questionnaire 'Care ofthe Dying Evaluation (CODE)' for the German-language area. Thepsychometric quality criteria will be tested in a sample of relatives ofrecently deceased persons. Currently this questionnaire is the onlyinternationally available instrument that evaluates especially thequality of care during the last two days of life from the perspective ofbereaved relatives. The instrument consists of 30 items that askretrospectively for the quality of care during this time period. These 30key questions include symptom control, emotional and spiritualsupport, hydration, nursing and medical care, spatial frameworkconditions, wishes regarding the place of death and communicationas well as support after death. Due to its special suitability for theassessment of a holistic treatment in palliative care, this questionnairewill be validated in the German-language area (content validity,construct validity, criterion validity, objectivity, test-retest reliability).For this purpose, close relatives of patients with an expected, nonsuddendeath in the palliative care units as well as in the internal andneurological wards of the University Medical Centers in Mainz andErlangen will be included in the study. For the psychometricevaluation of the questionnaire a number of at least 200 studyparticipants is assumed. Based on sample size calculations it isfurther assumed that therefore the review of in- and exclusion criteriawith particular consideration of the criterion 'expected death' will benecessary for about 925 deceased patients. The provision of aninternationally used, validated and feasible questionnaire to assessthe quality of care towards dying people will allow the investigation ofdifferent treatment settings and an international comparison of theresults. In terms of clinical implications the aim of this project is toenable future improvements in the provision of care and thereby toensure the best possible care for dying patients and their relatives.
DFG Programme Research Grants
Ehemalige Antragstellerin Professorin Dr. Stephanie Stiel, until 3/2017
 
 

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