Psychometric evaluation of the Caregiver Needs Screen in neuro-oncology family caregivers

Background and Purpose: The informal care demands of primary malignant brain tumor (PMBT) patients include unique issues associated with neurological and cognitive symptoms. Existing caregiver needs questionnaires do not include these disease-specific symptoms, which are particularly distressing. Therefore, we have developed the neuro-oncology Caregiver Needs Screen (CNS) and evaluated its psychometric properties.

Methods: The 32-item instrument was developed based on PMBT caregiver interviews (N=109) and expert review. The CNS was tested along measures of depression, anxiety, burden and mastery in 122 PMBT caregivers. Principal components analysis was used to examine item properties and internal structure. Internal consistency reliability and construct validity were assessed.

Results: Six subscales were identified with internal consistency ranging between α=.653 and α=.857. Convergent validity was verified by moderate/high correlations between measures of caregiver wellbeing and CNS scale scores.

Conclusions: Findings provide preliminary evidence of reliability and validity for the CNS. This instrument can be useful when assessing caregivers’ needs for supportive care.