Background: The distress thermometer (DT) has been studied and validated as an effective screening instrument for identifying distress among cancer patients worldwide. This study aims to evaluate the validity of the Arabic version of the DT in Saudi cancer patients, to define the optimal cutoff point of the Arabic DT for detecting clinically significant distress and to determine whether there is any correlation between clinically significant distress and other demographic and Problem List variables.
Methods: The original form of the DT was translated to Arabic using a forward and backward translation method. Then, a group of 247 cancer patients who were followed up at the Outpatient Oncology Clinic at King Saud Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, completed a socio-demographic and clinical status questionnaire, the DT and the Problem List scale, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).
Results: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses picked out an area under the curve of 0.76 when compared with a HADS cutoff score of 15. The DT had the best sensitivity (0.70) and specificity (0.63) with cutoff score of 4. A DT score of 4 or more was found to have a statistically significant correlation with female gender, advanced cancer stages and most of the Problem List items, including child care, work or school, treatment decision, dealing with children and partners, depression, fears, nervousness, sadness, loss of interest in usual activity, religious concerns, appearance, bathing/dressing, breathing, diarrhea, fatigue, feeling swollen, fever, getting around, indigestion, memory and concentration, nausea, dry nose, pain, and sexual problems. In contrast, a multivariate regression analysis confirmed only advanced cancer stages, treatment decision, depression, fear, sadness, worry, breathing, feeling swollen, fever, indigestion, memory and concentration, dry nose and congestion, pain and sleep as independent factors associated with distress in cancer patients.
Conclusions: We found the Arabic version of the DT to be a valid instrument for screening distress in Saudi patients with cancer. Our study proposes using a cutoff score of 4 as an indicator of clinically significant distress in this population.