Psychometric properties of the Screening Inventory of Psychosocial Problems (SIPP) in Dutch cancer patients treated with radiotherapy

The Screening Inventory of Psychosocial Problems (SIPP) was developed to assess psychosocial distress in Dutch cancer patients. It is short, easily completed by patients and quickly interpreted by medical staff. In this study, we investigated the psychometric properties of the SIPP in 289 Dutch cancer patients treated with radiotherapy. The SIPP was administered alongside the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Mental Adjustment to Cancer scale. In-depth structured clinical interviews were also conducted with 76 patients. Results indicate that the psychometric properties of the SIPP are promising with respect to its reliability, construct validity as evaluated with confirmatory factor analysis, and convergent and divergent validity. Receiver operating characteristics analysis showed that the SIPP successfully differentiates between patients known to have symptoms of distress and those who do not. The SIPP is therefore a reliable and valid instrument for identifying distress in cancer patients. It differs from previously developed instruments in that it measures different domains of distress in only a few minutes, and provides opportunity for patients to indicate whether they would like to discuss identified problem areas. Due to its convenient format, the SIPP may easily be used to assess psychosocial distress in cancer patients as a routine part of the clinical consultation.