Ridner Sheila H, Doersam Jennifer K, Stolldorf Deonni P, Dietrich Mary S
1 Vanderbilt University School of Nursing , Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
2 School of Medicine, Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
Lymphat Res Biol. 2018 Dec;16(6):538-546. doi: 10.1089/lrb.2017.0069. Epub 2018 Oct 24.
Lymphedema is a chronic, incurable condition that occurs most commonly in lower limbs (legs and feet). Increased morbidity is seen with this form of lymphedema, but there are few studies and even fewer tools intended to assess symptom burden in patients impacted by this condition. A questionnaire, the Lymphedema Symptom Intensity and Distress Survey-Lower Limb (LSIDS-L), was developed to fill this gap. The measure is composed of several clusters of symptoms thought to characterize lower limb lymphedema. The initial work was conducted to propose and assess the face validity of the clusters. Subsequently, work was undertaken to empirically evaluate the presence of the symptom clusters, assess the reliability of the cluster scores, and evaluate the validity of the scores by studying associations with other valid measures.
During the initial work, the LSIDS-L was tested with lower limb lymphedema patients only, and in the subsequent work the LSIDS-L and valid measures were administered to patients with no lymphedema and with lower limb lymphedema. A total of 388 volunteers participated, 111 of whom indicated no diagnosis of lymphedema, and 277 indicated a diagnosis of lower limb lymphedema. Cluster analysis resulted in the exclusion of 5 items, yielding 8 clusters with a total of 31 items. Cluster scores demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, distinguished nonlymphedema patients from lower lymphedema patients, and demonstrated expected convergent and divergent validity with other valid measures.
The LSIDS-L is a valid tool for detecting and quantifying symptom burden in patients with lower limb lymphedema.
淋巴水肿是一种慢性、无法治愈的病症，最常发生于下肢（腿部和足部）。这种类型的淋巴水肿会导致发病率增加，但针对评估受该病症影响患者的症状负担的研究较少，相关工具更是稀缺。为填补这一空白，研发了一份问卷，即下肢淋巴水肿症状强度与困扰调查问卷（LSIDS-L）。该测量工具由几组被认为是下肢淋巴水肿特征性症状组成。最初开展的工作是提出并评估这些症状组的表面效度。随后，进行了实证研究，以评估症状组的存在情况，评估症状组得分的可靠性，并通过研究与其他有效测量方法的关联来评估得分的效度。
在最初的工作中，仅对下肢淋巴水肿患者进行了LSIDS-L测试，在后续工作中，对无淋巴水肿患者和下肢淋巴水肿患者同时施测了LSIDS-L和有效测量方法。共有388名志愿者参与，其中111人表示未被诊断为淋巴水肿，277人表示被诊断为下肢淋巴水肿。聚类分析导致排除了5个项目，产生了8个症状组，共31个项目。症状组得分显示出可接受的内部一致性，能够区分非淋巴水肿患者和轻度淋巴水肿患者，并与其他有效测量方法显示出预期的聚合效度和区分效度。
LSIDS-L是一种用于检测和量化下肢淋巴水肿患者症状负担的有效工具。
