1. Development of the PRECIOUS Short-Form (PRECIOUS-SF) quality of care measure for children with serious illnesses.
- Author
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Ang FJL, Cheung YB, Gandhi M, Malhotra R, Ostbye T, Malhotra C, Chow CC, Chong PH, Amin Z, Tan TSZ, and Finkelstein E
- Subjects
- Humans, Child, Male, Female, Reproducibility of Results, Child, Preschool, Adolescent, Surveys and Questionnaires, Psychometrics methods, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Infant, Quality of Health Care, Parents psychology
- Abstract
Background: Rising number of children with complex medical conditions necessitate regular healthcare quality evaluation to achieve optimal outcomes. To address the need for a periodic and quick assessment of quality of care in serious childhood illnesses, we developed a short version of previously validated 45-item PaRental Experience with care for Children with serIOUS illnesses (PRECIOUS) measure., Methodology: PRECIOUS was administered by parents of children living with serious illnesses at two time-points (baseline and two weeks) in an online survey. PRECIOUS Short-Form (PRECIOUS-SF) items were derived from the full PRECIOUS measure, which comprises five scales, using an exploratory factor analysis and best subset regression. The measurement properties of PRECIOUS-SF scales were assessed using the concurrent validity using Pearson correlation (r) with the PRECIOUS scales, internal consistency (Cronbach's α) within each scale, convergent validity with overall QoC rating, and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC) between baseline and two-week responses., Results: PRECIOUS-SF included 10 items across four scales - (1) access to financial and medical resources (2), collaborative and goal-concordant care (3), caregiver support and respectful care and (4) reduction of caregiving stressors. A fifth and optional scale was suggested for hospitalization-specific processes. PRECIOUS-SF scales correlated strongly with corresponding PRECIOUS scales (r = 0.91 to 0.98) and demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (α = 0.77 to 0.91) and test-retest reliability (ICCs > 0.70)., Conclusions: PRECIOUS-SF demonstrated internal consistency, convergent validity, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity with PRECIOUS. PRECIOUS-SF offers a practical tool for routine quality of care assessment in pediatric serious illnesses for promoting timely service evaluation and quality improvement., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study. This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the National University of Singapore – Institutional Review Board (NUS-IRB-2022-489). Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose., (© 2025. The Author(s).)
- Published
- 2025
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