Background: Cancer influences various aspects of patients’ functioning. Cancer patients face not only medical problems but also organizational, socio-psychological, and spiritual problems. Their needs often seem to be unrecognized because patients do not express their concerns and clinicians do not ask appropriate questions. Unmet needs impact patients’ quality of life. The aim of this study was to select, adapt, validate, and introduce a simple instrument for estimating cancer patients’ unmet needs in Poland. Methods: The Needs Evaluation Questionnaire (NEQ) was chosen for validation in a Polish population. The Polish version of the NEQ was developed with a back-translation procedure, as approved by a psycho-oncologist and a public health specialist. The psychometric properties of the NEQ (content analysis, reliability, construct validity, comprehensibility, and acceptability) were measured. Results: This study was performed on a group of 121 cancer patients. The median time of completion for the NEQ was 10 min. The form, length, and font size of the NEQ were accepted by the respondents. Overall, the meaning of the questions was well understood, with only a few cases of discreetly heterogeneous interpretation of the content. The questionnaire showed good reliability and internal factor structure validity. Conclusion: The NEQ is a simple, easy-to-administer instrument with good psychometric properties and seems to be useful in assessing the unexpressed needs of cancer patients.
背景：癌症影响患者功能的多个方面。癌症患者不仅面临医疗问题，还面临组织、社会心理及精神层面的问题。由于患者未表达其担忧且临床医生未提出恰当问题，这些需求常被忽视。未满足的需求会影响患者的生活质量。本研究旨在筛选、调整、验证并引入一种用于评估波兰癌症患者未满足需求的简易工具。 方法：选择需求评估问卷（NEQ）在波兰人群中进行验证。通过回译程序开发了波兰语版NEQ，并经由心理肿瘤学家和公共卫生专家审核确认。对NEQ的心理测量学特性（内容分析、信度、结构效度、可理解性和可接受性）进行了评估。 结果：本研究共纳入121名癌症患者。NEQ完成时间中位数为10分钟。受访者认可问卷的形式、长度和字体大小。总体而言，问题含义易于理解，仅少数内容存在细微的解读差异。该问卷显示出良好的信度和内部因子结构效度。 结论：NEQ是一种操作简便的评估工具，具有良好的心理测量学特性，可用于评估癌症患者未表达的需求。
Validation of the Standardized Needs Evaluation Questionnaire in Polish Cancer Patients
肿瘤(癌症)患者之家