Use of distress and depression thermometers to measure psychosocial morbidity among southern European cancer patients

Goals of work: Recent literature has indicated the need for rapid evaluation of psychosocial issues secondary to cancer. Because of the problems of routine use of psychometric instruments, short instruments such as visual analogue scales or one-item 0-10 scales have been developed as valid assessment alternatives. Patients and methods: A study was conducted to examine the role of two 0-10 scales in measuring emotional stress (distress thermometer, DT) and depressed mood (mood thermometer, MT), respectively, in a multicenter study carried out in southern European countries (Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland). A convenience sample of 312 cancer outpatients completed the DT and MT and the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS). Main results: DT was more significantly associated HADS anxiety than HADS depression while MT was related both to HADS anxiety and depression. The correlation of MT with HADS was higher than DT. A cutoff point > 4 on the DT maximized sensitivity (65%) and specificity (79%) for general psychosocial morbidity while a cutoff > 5 identified more severe "caseness" (sensitivity=70%; specificity=73%). On the MT, sensitivity and specificity for general psychosocial morbidity were 85% and 72% by using the cutoff score > 3. A score > 4 on the MT was associated with a sensitivity of 78% and a specificity of 77% in detecting more severe caseness. Conclusions: Two simple instruments, the DT and the MT, were found to have acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity in detecting psychosocial morbidity. Compared to the HADS, however, the mood MT performed better than the DT.