LTC Scale Validation Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Validation of the living with chronic illness scale in an English speaking population with long term conditions.
IRAS ID
272646
Contact name
Mari Carmen Portillo
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Research Summary
Long term conditions (LTCs) are a worldwide challenge because of their increasing numbers, complications, costs and impact on people’s lives. In order to develop interventions that improve the adaptation to illness and quality of life, we need appropriate, reliable and valid tools, which reflect cultural and language diversities and individual needs. This would benefit both patients and health/social care professionals in the management of LTCs, by allowing the patients a way to express their needs and therefore, allow the health/social care professional to direct the patient to specific, relevant resources. The present study aims to produce an English version of the Living with Chronic Illness Scale and establish if it can be useful and applicable to English speaking people with LTCs in the UK.
The Living with Chronic Illness Scale is the only available tool, which comprehensively evaluates the experience of living with a long term condition, focusing on the person and not on the disease. This scale was created after previous research, and successfully used with people with Parkinson’s Disease from Spain and South America, in Spanish.
In this study the Spanish version of the scale has been translated to the English language and adjusted to encompass any cultural differences. We are currently undertaking a pilot study to test the understanding of the approved English version with 90 people with LTCs after having developed a patient and public involvement consultation. Then, after the pilot stage we will use the final English version of the scale with at least 1,650 people with different LTCs in community settings. Apart from the Living with Chronic Illness Scale, we will ask participants about perceived social support, life satisfaction, quality of life, and the perceived severity of their LTC(s), using tools for English speakers.Summary of Results
The scale successfully measures how well individuals live with one or more long-term conditions. We found that the scale was acceptable to 577 people from the United Kingdom living with different long-term conditions. The results recommend shortening the original version of the scale for better use in clinical practice
REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 2
REC reference
20/ES/0084
Date of REC Opinion
14 Oct 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion