The National Institutes of Health Measure of Healing Experience of All Life Stressors

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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NIH-Healing Experience in All Life Stressors (NIH-HEALS) is a 35 item self-report questionnaire developed by the NIH Clinical Center Pain and Palliative care. It assesses an individual's mechanisms for coping as a means to reach healing during life's difficult situations and/or life limiting challenges. The factorial structure of the tool has been recently re-examined with 200 patients. The three main factors are: Connection (including religious, spiritual, interpersonal), Reflection/ Introspection, and Trust/Acceptance.

Detailed Description
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At the Clinical Center Pain and Palliative Care Service (PPCS) we have developed a pscyho-social-spiritual measure, the Healing Experience in all Life Stressors (HEALS), that focuses on the healing experience in people with severe and life limiting illness. We have validated this tool further in order to be able to identify those individuals who may benefit from additional interventions to cope with their illness and even assist them in reaching a healing experience that is possible even in the midst of their unfavorable circumstances. Identification of vulnerable individuals as well individuals who do have transformative experience after being diagnosed with severe and life limiting illness, has far-reaching impact on the quality of patient care for the very sick patients.

Official Title
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The National Institutes of Health Measure of Healing Experience of All Life Stressors (NIH-HEALS): Factor Analysis and Validation

Conditions
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Severe Chronic Illness

Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Age of 18 or above The ability to read and write in English The presence or history of a serious and/or life-threatening disease

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Participants<br>Those with severe chronic illnesses, which included but were not limited to various forms of advanced cancer, blood dyscrasias, graft vs. host disease, and rare genetic conditions. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| National Institutes of Health- Healing Experience of All Life Stressors (NIH-HEALS) | Based on our validation study (Ameli et.al., 2018), we now propose a 35-item, three-factor NIH-HEALS as a measure of psycho-social-spiritual healing. These three factors include: Connection, Reflection & Introspection, and Trust & Acceptance. | 7 months | 
| Self Integration Scale (SIS) -V2 | SIS is an 18 item self report measure with 2 factors: Healed and Co-dependent. As predicted NIH-HEALS positively correlated with the Healed and negative correlated with the Co-dependent factors. | 7 months | 
| Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual well being (FACIT-SP) | FACIT-SP is a 12 item self report that measures spiritual well being and is a part of the larger FACIT measurement system (www.FACIT.org). A 3 factor structure has been reported with cancer patients and include meaning, peace, and faith. As predicted, NIH-HEALS correlated positively with these 3 factors. | 7 months | 
| Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) | MAAS is a self report measure of trait mindfulness with 15 items. As predicted NIH-HEALS correlated positively with MAAS. | 7 months | 
| The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) (10 item version) | CD-RSIC is a 10 item self-report measure of resilience. As predicted NIH-HEALS positively correlated with CD-RISC | 7 months | 
| Life Events Checklist 5 (LEC-5) (standard self-report) | LEC-5 is a 17 item self-report measure designed to screen for potentially traumatic events in a respondent's lifetime. The LEC-5 assesses exposure to 16 events known to potentially result in PTSD or distress and includes one additional item assessing any other extraordinarily stressful event not captured in the first 16 items. | 7 months | 
| Demographic Questionnaire (DQ) | DQ collected information on gender, age, ethnicity, race, marital status, religious affiliation, education, employment status, medical diagnosis, length of illness, severity of illness, psychiatric co-morbidity, perceived stress level, perceived level of social support, overall health status, and overall quality of life. | 7 months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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healing, spiritual, psycho-social-spiritual, growth, chronic illness, patient care