Abstract 6299: Psychometric evaluation of the FACIT-SP 12 in a primary brain tumor patient population
Authors: Vera Elizabeth , Ozer Byram , Acquaye-Mallory Alvina , Pillai Valentina , Choi Anna , Grajkowska Ewa , Kunst Tricia , Miller Hope , Reinhart Kimberly , Armstrong Terri S. , Stockdill Macy 
Published: March 2024

Spirituality is a social determinant of health associated with psychosocial adjustment to serious illnesses including cancer but is not often assessed in clinical care. Here we perform psychometric evaluation of a tool developed to report spiritual well-being in chronic illness in a cohort of 248 patients with primary brain tumors (PBT) enrolled in a natural history study (NCT02851706, PI: T. Armstrong). Participants completed the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being 12 (FACIT-SP 12) as part of yearly clinical outcome assessments. Total score, Meaning/Peace and Faith scores were calculated. Internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) and construct validity (principal components analysis with varimax rotation) evaluated psychometric properties of the FACIT-SP 12; one-way ANOVAs, one-sample t-test and Wilcoxon signed rank tests evaluated group differences (sig. p&lt;0.05) on patient report of spirituality/beliefs including belief in god(s)/higher power, being religious, and prayer and in comparison to scores of previously reported studies. Participants were majority male (57%), white (79%) with high grade tumor (59%) and a median age of 48 (range: 20-82). Seven different religions were reported (majority Christianity [55%]) but also spiritual non-religious (9%), no beliefs (13%), and 6% preferring not to answer. The principal components analysis confirmed the original 2 factor solution (Meaning/Peace and Faith) and explained 66.8% of the variance (KMO =0.87, 43% of residuals &lt; 0.05), with one item not loading cleanly on either factor (“I know that whatever happens with my illness, things will be okay”). Cronbach’s alphas were 0.90, 0.90, and 0.89, for the total, Meaning/Peace, and Faith scales, respectively. For all three spiritual/belief questions, patients who responded “yes” had higher total and faith scores than those who responded “no"; but not in the Meaning/Peace score when reporting religion (p=0.108). This cohort reported lower total scores (mean=32.5), Meaning/Peace scores (mean=23.4, median=24.0) and Faith scores (mean=9.2, median=10.0) compared to the initial validation in other solid tumors and HIV/AIDs (means=38.5, 25.2, 13.6, respectively) and to a smaller, less diverse PBT sample (medians: Meaning/Peace=25.8, Faith=14.0). The FACIT-SP 12 demonstrated internal consistency and construct validity, with lower scores in comparison to populations in prior studies. More diverse belief systems than previously reported may contribute to differences among studies. Future analysis should explore the increased percentage of “prefer not to answer” respondents compared to earlier reports, associations with clinical and self-reported outcomes including symptoms and quality of life, evaluation of illness-related factors that contribute to poor spiritual well-being, and a longitudinal look at spiritual well-being.

Citation Format: Elizabeth Vera, Byram Ozer, Alvina Acquaye-Mallory, Valentina Pillai, Anna Choi, Ewa Grajkowska, Tricia Kunst, Hope Miller, Kimberly Reinhart, Terri S. Armstrong, Macy Stockdill. Psychometric evaluation of the FACIT-SP 12 in a primary brain tumor patient population [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 6299.