Richard Sawatzky

Trinity Western University · School of Nursing

Objectives To estimate Canadian population norms (health utility values, summary component scores and domain scores) for the VR-12. Methods English and French speaking Canadians aged 18 and older completed an online survey that included sociodemographic questions and standardized health status instruments, including the VR-12. Responses to the VR-...

Purpose Supporting clinicians in contextualizing PROM data to better understand patients’ health stories could lead to improved person-centred cancer care. Integrating PROMs into journey maps is one way to assist clinicians in making sense of PROMs data. This project co-developed PROM-informed journey maps in partnership with older adults who have...

Purpose The objective of this systematic review was to describe the prevalence and magnitude of response shift effects, for different response shift methods, populations, study designs, and patient-reported outcome measures (PROM)s. Methods A literature search was performed in MEDLINE, PSYCINFO, CINAHL, EMBASE, Social Science Citation Index, and D...

Person-centredness is a cornerstone to a palliative approach to care. However, there is a risk that a person-centred perspective is lost in how a palliative approach is evaluated. We explored the extent to which evaluations of a palliative approach are consistent with its person-centred ethical stance. Using a narrative review approach, we critical...

Objective: Despite recognized benefits, engagement in Advance Care Planning (ACP) remains low. Research into peer-facilitated, group ACP interventions is limited. This study investigated the acceptability of community-led peer-facilitated ACP workshops for the public and whether these workshops are associated with increased knowledge, motivation a...

Objective Community-led approaches can increase public engagement in Advance Care Planning (ACP). Better understanding of the experiences and perspectives of community staff and volunteers who host and facilitate community-led, peer-facilitated ACP workshops is valuable when considering the spread of these approaches. Methods Content analysis of q...

Purpose This article describes the development of the Vancouver airways health literacy tool (VAHLT), a novel measure of skill-based health literacy specific to chronic airway diseases (CADs). Across several phases, psychometric characteristics of the VAHLT were examined and used to guide its development. Methods An initial pool of 46 items was de...

Background Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are increasingly mandated in kidney care to incorporate patients’ perspectives. Objectives We assessed whether educational support for clinicians using electronic (e)PROs could enhance person-centered care. Design A process evaluation, using a mixed methods longitudinal comparative concurrent design was...

Purpose Mental health and well-being trajectories are not expected to be homogeneous in diverse clinical populations. This exploratory study aims to identify subgroups of patients with cancer receiving radiation therapy who have different mental health and well-being trajectories, and examine which socio-demographic, physical symptoms, and clinical...

Research evidence supporting the implementation of centredness in health care is not easily accessible due to the sheer amount of literature available and the diversity in terminology and conceptualisations used. The use of text-mining functions to semi-automate the process of screening and collating citations for a review is a way of tackling the...

Homecare nurses provide essential healthcare services at home. Changes in the nature of homecare nursing practice, however, suggest that older and frail homecare clients are less likely to have timely access to needed homecare nursing services as acute management takes priority. This has an impact on people's ability to be cared for and to die at h...

Purpose: To explore patient, caregiver, and clinician perspectives on palliative care for patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Participants & setting: 8 patients who had undergone or would undergo HSCT, 4 caregivers, and 16 HSCT clinicians. Methodologic approach: This qualitative, interpretive descriptive study u...

Objective: Pregnancy-specific anxiety (PSA) is a distinct construct from general anxiety and depression. The purpose of this study was to develop, evaluate, and validate the Pregnancy-Specific Anxiety Tool (PSAT), to measure PSA and its severity. Methods: The study was carried out in 2 stages. Stage 1 involved item development and content and face...

Background and objectives: The Veterans RAND 12-Item Health Survey (VR-12) is a generic patient-reported outcome measure of physical and mental health status. An adapted version of the VR-12 was developed for use with older adults living in long-term residential care (LTRC) homes in Canada: VR-12 (LTRC-C). This study aimed to evaluate the psychome...

Purpose Our aim is to advance response shift research by explicating the implications of published syntheses by the Response Shift – in Sync Working Group in an integrative way and suggesting ways for improving the quality of future response shift studies. Methods Members of the Working Group further discussed the syntheses of the literature on de...

Aims: While patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are increasingly being integrated into health information technologies, one challenge has been to assist clinicians in understanding how the responses to PROMs relate to patient stories for identifying and addressing the care needs of individual patients. Personas, hypothetical representations...

Background: Low health literacy is a global challenge. Health literacy is positively correlated with chronic airways disease desirable outcomes. Despite the importance of health literacy in disease management, current health literacy measurement tools are suboptimal. As part of a multi-stage project to develop a performance-based, disease-specific...

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic in long-term care (LTC) has threatened to undo efforts to transform the culture of care from institutionalized to de-institutionalized models characterized by an orientation towards person-and relationship-centred care. Given the pandemic's persistence, the sustainability of culture-change efforts has come unde...

Objective: Measure the association of working from home (WFH) with work productivity loss due to caregiving responsibilities or health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We conducted an online survey of family/friend caregivers (N = 150 WFH/75 Non-WFH) and patients (N = 95/91) who worked during the past 7 days in May and July 2020,...

Background Depression and anxiety are commonly reported (40% and 11%-52%) among adults receiving dialysis, compared with ~10% among all Canadians. Mental health in dialysis care is underrecognized and undertreated. Objective (1) To describe preferences for mental health support reported by Albertans receiving dialysis; (2) to compare depression, a...

Objectives This study aimed to compare discriminant validity evidence of 2 generic patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), the Veterans RAND 12-Item Health Survey (VR-12) and level 5 of EQ-5D (EQ-5D-5L), for use in emergency departments (EDs). Methods Data were obtained via a cross-sectional survey of 5876 patients in British Columbia (Canada)...

Purpose Mixture item response theory (MixIRT) models can be used to uncover heterogeneity in responses to items that comprise patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). This is accomplished by identifying relatively homogenous latent subgroups in heterogeneous populations. Misspecification of the number of latent subgroups may affect model accuracy...

Background: Low health literacy (HL) is a global challenge. HL is positively correlated with chronic airways disease (CAD) outcomes. Despite the importance of HL in disease management, current HL measurement tools are suboptimal. As part of a multi-stage project to develop a performance-based, disease-specific Vancouver Airways Health Literacy Tool...

Aim: Digital health for hypertension management holds potential for improving the quality of care but requires long-term patient engagement to track health data. We explored patient and hypertension specialist perceptions of clinical utility for data tracking including standardized patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), home blood pressure (BP)...

Purpose To support the use of quality of life (QOL) assessment tools for older adults, we developed knowledge translation (KT) resources tailored for four audiences: (1) older adults and their family caregivers (micro), (2) healthcare providers (micro), (3) healthcare managers and leaders (meso), and (4) government leaders and decision-makers (macr...

Engagement with the historical and theoretical underpinnings of measuring quality of life (QoL) and patient‐reported outcomes (PROs) in healthcare is important. Ideas and values that shape such practices—and in the endgame, people's lives—might otherwise remain unexamined, be taken for granted or even essentialized. Our aim is to explicate and theo...

Tools for measuring patients' perceived health and quality of life, such as patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), inform clinical decisions for patients requiring radiation therapy. However, there may be inconsistencies in how patients interpret and respond to PROMs due to cultural, environmental, personal, or experiential factors. Differentia...

Background Critical care physicians and nurses have significant roles in the complex process of end-of-life decision making. Objective To understand how nurses' and physicians' emotions, psychosocial factors and professional roles influence end-of-life decision making in critical care. Research design/methodology An interpretive descriptive quali...

Context Socio-demographic differences, including place of residence, socio-economic status, ethnicity, and gender, have been associated with various inequities in cancer care outcomes. Objectives The aims were to distinguish subgroups of patients with different symptom patterns at the time of the initial oncology visit and determine which clinical...

Introduction: The introduction of effective, evidence-based approaches to centredness in health care is hindered by the fact that research results are not easily accessible. This is partly due to the large volume of publications available and because the field is closely linked to and in some ways encompasses adjoining fields of research, for exam...

Background: The Veterans RAND 12-Item Health Survey (VR-12) is a generic patient-reported outcome measure derived from the widely used 36- and 12-item Short Form Health Surveys. We aimed to estimate a Canadian preference-based scoring algorithm for the VR-12, enabling the derivation of health utility values for generating quality-adjusted life yea...

Purpose The Working Group undertook a critical, comprehensive synthesis of the response shift work to date. We aimed to (1) describe the rationale for this initiative; (2) outline how the Working Group operated; (3) summarize the papers that comprise this initiative; and (4) discuss the way forward. Methods Four interdisciplinary teams, consisting...

Purpose This work is part of an international, interdisciplinary initiative to synthesize research on response shift in results of patient-reported outcome measures. The objective is to critically examine current response shift methods. We additionally propose advancing new methods that address the limitations of extant methods. Methods Based on l...

Purpose Results of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are increasingly used to inform healthcare decision-making. Research has shown that response shift can impact PROM results. As part of an international collaboration, our goal is to provide a framework regarding the implications of response shift at the level of patient care (micro), heal...

Aims: Two generic patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs; VR-12 and EQ-5D-5L) were fielded across Emergency Departments (EDs) in British Columbia (BC) to inform the selection of a PROM for understanding the health status of patients over time and across organizations. The study objectives were to use the BC PROMs data to compare the validity evid...

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There is currently no comprehensive tool to assess the functional health literacy (HL) skills of chronic airway disease (CAD) patients. The purpose of this article is to describe the development of a new HL measure, the Vancouver Airways Health Literacy Tool (VAHLT). The tool was developed through the following phases: (1) Tool conceptualization, c...

Objective This study aimed to: (a) adapt the previously validated Valuation of Lost Productivity (VOLP) questionnaire for people with health problems, to a caregiver version to measure productivity losses associated with caregiving responsibilities, and (b) evaluate measurement feasibility and validity of an online version of the caregiver VOLP que...

In a cluster-randomized trial (CRT), the number of participants enrolled often varies across clusters. This variation should be considered during both trial design and data analysis to ensure statistical performance goals are achieved. Most methodological literature on the CRT design has assumed equal cluster sizes. This scoping review focuses on m...

Objectives Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are used widely to elicit patient's self-appraisal of their health status and quality of life. One fundamental assumption when measuring PROMs is that all individuals interpret questions about their health status in a consistent manner. However, subgroups of patients with a similar health conditi...

Background There is international interest on the use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in nephrology.Objectives Our objectives were to develop a kidney-specific program theory about use of PROs in nephrology that may enhance person-centered care, both at individual and aggregated levels of care, and to test and refine this theory through a syste...

Purpose Previous research about the health and quality of life of people with atrial fibrillation has typically identified a single health trajectory. Our study aimed to examine variability in health trajectories and patient characteristics associated with such variability. Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of data collected between 20...

Objectives: To a) estimate the relative value of older adults' healthcare experiences based on the Canadian Patient Experience Survey for Inpatient Care (CPES-IC) using an economic valuation technique, and b) compare the results with those of a conventional key-driver analysis of healthcare experiences based on bivariate correlations. Study desig...

Background An assumption in many analyses of longitudinal patient-reported outcome (PRO) data is that there is a single population following a single health trajectory. One approach that may help researchers move beyond this traditional assumption, with its inherent limitations, is growth mixture modelling (GMM), which can identify and assess multi...

Objective Distinct cognitive subgroups are seen in patients with long duration bipolar I disorder (BDI), possibly reflective of underlying pathophysiological differences. It is unknown whether such cognitive heterogeneity is present at illness onset. We applied latent class analysis (LCA) to cognitive test scores in first episode BDI patients. Expl...

Importance International efforts are being made towards a person-centred care (PCC) model, but there are currently no standardised mechanisms to measure and monitor PCC at a healthcare system level. The use of metrics to measure PCC can help to drive the changes needed to improve the quality of healthcare that is person centred. Objective To devel...

Objectives: Measuring the perceived mental and physical health status of older adults living in long-term residential care (LTRC) is central to patient-centered care. This study examined the qualitative content validity of the Veterans RAND 12 Item Health Survey (VR-12) for LTRC and, based on the findings, the authors developed an adapted version o...

Background: The McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire - Expanded (MQOL-E) and the Quality of Life in Life-Threatening Illness-Family Carer/Caregiver version (QOLLTI-F) are developed for use with patients facing the end of life and their family carers, respectively. They are also developed for possible use as companion instruments. Contemporary meas...

Background: Health literacy (HL) is a person's ability to practically apply a wide range of cognitive and non-cognitive skills in health-related decisions. HL includes five domains: navigate/access, understand, communicate, evaluate, and use of health information and services. Currently, no tool accurately captures and measures HL in adult patient...

Background: Patient-reported outcomes (pros) are essential to capture the patient's perspective and to influence care. Although pros and pro measures are known to have many important benefits, they are not consistently being used and there is there no Canadian pros oversight. The Position Statement presented here is the first step toward supportin...

Background and objectives: Our aim was to create a "storyline" that provides empirical explanation of stakeholders' perspectives underlying the use of patient- and family-reported outcome and experience measures to inform continuity across transitions in care for frail older adults and their family caregivers living at home. Research design and m...

Background: Up to 1 in 5 patients who undergo total knee arthroplasty (TKA) express dissatisfaction with their surgery. Our goal was to understand the experiences of patients of South Asian origin who undergo TKA and to identify a research agenda for this patient population. Methods: We undertook a modified Delphi study in British Columbia to ge...

To meet patients' information and communication needs over time in order to improve their recovery is particularly challenging for patients undergoing cancer surgery. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether an intervention with a person-centred approach to information and communication for patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer undergoing s...

The Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (Revised) (ESAS-r) contains 9 questions pertaining to symptoms/well-being. It is a standardized patient-reported assessment instrument, but inconsistently used in palliative care. Thus, a problem exists in knowledge translation regarding routine use of the ESAS-r in palliative practice. The objective was to un...

Background: Domains other than those commonly measured (physical, psychological, social, and sometimes existential/spiritual) are important to the quality of life of people with life-threatening illness. The McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL) - Revised measures the four common domains. The aim of this study was to create a psychometricall...

Background and purpose: A palliative approach involves adapting and integrating palliative care knowledge and expertise earlier on and across sectors of care for people who have life-limiting chronic conditions. This study explored the extent to which nurses' and care aides' self-perceived palliative care competence may explain variation in the ap...

Introduction and aim: The British Columbia Adult Haemophilia Team recently adopted a patient-centred care approach. The team presented visual information on an individual's pharmacokinetic profile and bleed history and encouraged patients to participate in treatment decisions. This qualitative study explored how this approach changed patients' und...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate symptom prevalence, symptom relief, and palliative care indicators during the last week of life, comparing them for patients with motor neuron disease (MND), central nervous system tumors (CNS tumor), and other neurological diseases (OND). Material & methods: Data were obtained from the Swedis...

Background Joint replacement, an increasingly common procedure amongst older adults, can substantially improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, differential item functioning (DIF) may affect the accurate interpretation of differences in HRQoL amongst patients with different demographic and health status characteristics but the same...

Background Clinical registries, which capture information about the health and healthcare use of patients with a health condition or treatment, often contain patient-reported outcomes (PROs) that provide insights about the patient’s perspectives on their health. Missing data can affect the value of PRO data for healthcare decision-making. We compar...

Abstract Background Clinical registries, which capture information about the health and healthcare use of patients with a health condition or treatment, often contain patient-reported outcomes (PROs) that provide insights about the patient’s perspectives on their health. Missing data can affect the value of PRO data for healthcare decision-making....

Healthcare services are increasingly being provided in the home. At the same time, these home contexts are changing as global migration has brought unprecedented diversity both in the recipients of care, and home health workers. In this paper, we present findings of a Canadian study that examined the negotiation of religious and ethnic plurality in...

Purpose As patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) increasingly become key outcome indicators in health care, there has been growing concern about the potential negative consequences that could result when interpretations are being made to inform clinical and policy decisions. Therefore, we explored theoretical issues, assumptions, and consequenc...

Background Patient-reported outcomes and experience measures (jointly referred to here as PROs) are internationally recognized as a means for patients to provide information about their quality of life, symptoms, and experiences with care. Although increasingly recognized as key to improving the quality of healthcare at individual (e.g., patients,...