Quick screening tool for patients with severe negative emotional reactions to chronic illness: psychometric study of the negative emotions due to chronic illness screening test (NECIS).

Background: Severe negative emotional reactions to chronic illness are maladaptive to patients and they need to be addressed in a primary care setting.

Objective: The psychometric properties of a quick screening tool-the Negative Emotions due to Chronic Illness Screening Test (NECIS)-for general emotional problems among patients with chronic illness being treated in a primary care setting was investigated.

Method: Three studies including 375 of patients with chronic illness were used to assess and analyze internal consistency, test-retest reliability, criterion-related validity, a cut-off point for distinguishing maladaptive emotions and clinical application validity of NECIS. Self-report questionnaires were used.

Results: Internal consistency (Cronbach's α) ranged from 0.78 to 0.82, and the test-retest reliability was 0.71 (P < 0.001). Criterion-related validity was 0.51 (P < 0.001). Based on the 'severe maladaptation' and 'moderate maladaptation' groups defined by using the 'Worsening due to Chronic Illness' index as the analysis reference, the receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis revealed an area under the curve of 0.81 and 0.82 (ps < 0.001), and a cut-off point of 19/20 was the most satisfactory for distinguishing those with overly negative emotions, with a sensitivity and specificity of 83.3 and 69.0%, and 68.5 and 83.0%, respectively. The clinical application validity analysis revealed that low NECIS group showed significantly better adaptation to chronic illness on the scales of subjective health, general satisfaction with life, self-efficacy of self-care for disease, illness perception and stressors in everyday life.

Conclusion: The NECIS has satisfactory psychometric properties for use in the primary care setting.