Pilot study for the psychometric validation of the Sheffield profile for assessment and referral to care (SPARC) in Korean cancer patients

Purpose This study aimed to validate the Sheffield Profile for Assessment and Referral to Care (SPARC) as an effective tool for screening palliative care needs among Korean cancer patients. Materials and Methods The English version of the SPARC was translated by four Korean oncologists and reconciled by a Korean language specialist and a medical oncologist fluent in English. After the first version of the Korean SPARC (K-SPARC) was developed, back-translation into English was performed by a professional translator and bilingual oncologist. The back-translated version was reviewed by the original author (S.H.A.), and modifications were made (ver. 2). The second version of the K-SPARC was tested against other questionnaires, including the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) and the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS). Results Thirty patients were enrolled in the pilot trial. Fifteen were male, and the median age was 64.5 years. Six patients had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 2 or more. All patients except one were receiving chemotherapy. Regarding internal consistency, the Cronbach's α scores for physical symptoms, psychological issues, religious and spiritual issues, independency and activity, family and social issues, and treatment issues were 0.812, 0.804, 0.589, 0.843, 0.754, and 0.822, respectively. The correlation coefficients between the SPARC and FACT-G were 0.479 (p=0.007) for the physical domain and -0.130 (p=0.493) for the social domain. Conclusion This pilot study indicates that the K-SPARC could be a reliable tool to screen for palliative care needs among Korean cancer patients. A further study to validate our findings is ongoing.