Spanish Adaptation of the Pediatric Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale for Children, Teens, and Caregivers.

Context: There are no validated Spanish tools to assess symptom burden in pediatric cancer. The Pediatric Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (Pediatric-MSAS) is an English valid multidimensional and comprehensive instrument.

Objectives: To validate Pediatric-MSAS-Spanish (MSAS-Child, MSAS-Teen, and MSAS-Caregiver versions) in patients with cancer treated in two public hospitals in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Methods: Cross-sectional study, classical psychometric theory. We recruited a convenience sample of 148 caregivers of children ≥ two years, 51 young children (seven to 12 years), and 48 adolescents (≥13 years). We assessed feasibility, comprehensibility, internal consistency, and convergent and known-groups validity.

Results: Pediatric-MSAS-Spanish was feasible, acceptable, and comprehensible. Reliability of MSAS-total and subscale scores was satisfactory (Cronbach alpha: 0.90, 0.89, 0.71, respectively, for caregiver, teen, and child MSAS-total score). MSAS-total caregiver, teen, and child scores met a priori criteria for convergent validity correlating with Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory total scores (Spearman correlation (r) = -0.59, -0.66, and -0.32, respectively) and visual -analogue well-being scores (r = -0.63, -0.46, and -0.4, respectively). Caregiver-teen correlation was strong for total (r = 0.78) and physical (r = 0.85) scores, and moderate for global distress index (r = 0.64) and psychological (r = 0.45) scores. MSAS-total caregiver-child correlation was moderate (r = 0.30) and Kappa analysis showed poor agreement. All MSAS-Caregiver scores and MSAS-Teen total and physical scores differentiated inpatients/outpatients and patients on/off-treatment, while MSAS-Teen psychological and global distress index subscales or MSAS-Child scores did not.

Conclusion: Pediatric-MSAS-Spanish is feasible and reliable for assessing symptom burden in children with cancer. Validity of MSAS-Caregiver and MSAS-Teen was largely supported. Further work on MSAS-Child is warranted.