Objective: The faithful translation of the English version of
the Schedule of Attitudes toward Hastened Death (SAHD) into Greek and its
validation as an assessment tool in terminally ill cancer patients
receiving palliative treatment.
Methods: 120 terminally ill cancer patients attending a
Palliative Care Unit, at the University of Athens, Greece, between June
2003 and November 2003 for palliative treatment.
Results: SAHD would be a useful instrument for measuring
desire for hastened death with valid psychometric properties in a Greek
cancer population. The SAHD demonstrated high reliability. Desire for
hastened death was significantly associated with Hospital Anxiety and
Depression Scale (HAD) depression (r = 0.607, p <
0.0005) and substantially correlated with HAD anxiety (r = 0.502,
p < 0.0005). “Pain intensity” had a moderate
correlation with SAHD scores (r = 0.28, p = 0.01) and
SAHD scores correlated significantly with “pain interference in
mood” (r = 0.38, p = 0.01) and in “enjoyment
of life” (r = 0.34, p = 0.03). SAHD correlation
with quality of life was statistically significant (r =
−0.38, p < 0.01) as was health status (r =
−0.36, p < 0.01). Patients with a Poor Performance
Status (from Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group scale) correlated
significantly with high scores in SAHD (p = 0.038). Factor
analysis supported the unidimentionality of the measurement.
Significance of results: SAHD could be a useful and valid
instrument for measuring desire for hastened death in Greek terminally ill
cancer patients.