Diagnostic accuracy of distress thermometer in hematological cancer

Abstract

Objective: The present study extends the previous investigation about validity and diagnostic accuracy of the DT for detecting psychosocial distress among Spanish cancer patients. The Distress Thermometer (DT) is a common screening tool, but other methods –such as Impact Thermometer (IT)- have recently been proposed with the aim of improving its diagnostic accuracy. In this paper, we investigated the emotional symptomatology captured by the DT, and the diagnostic accuracy of both the DT alone and combined with the IT, using two possible combination methods.

Methods: A sample of 81 adult patients with hematologic cancer completed the DT, the Colored Complaint Scale (CCS), the IT and the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18). Several indexes were calculated to study the diagnostic accuracy: the area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve (AUC); measures of occurrence (Se y Sp), measures of discrimination (PPV and NPV) and clinical utility indexes (UIs).

Results: The results of the DT were comparable with those found in previous studies, indicating that the DT is adequate for ‘screening’, but has limited value for ‘case finding’. Furthermore, the DT and the IT combined show minor differences in accuracy indexes compared with the DT alone.

Conclusiones: DT and IT are useful tools for routine use in clinical practice providing psychosocial relevant patient information to healthcare professional without interfering in their care task.