Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Brazilian version of the Quality Care Questionnaire-Palliative Care (QCQ-PC) is an instrument designed to assess the quality of care provided in palliative care from the user's perspective, featuring easy comprehension and applicability. It has demonstrated validity for use in individuals with cancer, but there is a need for validation in other populations due to the scarcity of instruments with this purpose. OBJECTIVE: To structurally validate the Brazilian version of the QCQ-PC for use in individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM) eligible for palliative care. METHODS: This is a structural validation study of a questionnaire according to the Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN). The study was conducted with 100 individuals with DM. Data collection occurred in differents care services in São Luís (northeast Brazil) by means of the application of the QCQ-PC and a form with sociodemographic, clinical, and daily habit data. Descriptive data analysis was performed using absolute values, relative frequencies, and measures of central tendency and dispersion. Structural validity was assessed by means of exploratory factor analysis (EFA). RESULTS: Of the 100 participants included in the study, 66% were female, 54% were single, with a median age of 64 years, 44% were overweight (44%), 77% were on polypharmacy, and 70% were physically inactive. We found that one domain is the most appropriate for use of the QCQ-PC in individuals with DM eligible for palliative care, according to the parallel analysis implemented in the EFA. This domain was named "quality of care". The fit indices for this one-dimensional internal structure were adequate: Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test = 0.71, p value < 0.01 in Bartlett's test, chi-square/degree of freedom = 1.07, comparative fit index = 0.993, Tucker-Lewis index. = 0.991, root mean square error of approximation = 0.028. The QCQ-PC presented factor loadings ranging from 0.480 to 0.883, maintaining a total of 12 items, which demonstrates the adequate relationship between the quality of care domain and its items. CONCLUSION: Therefore, the internal structure with one domain (quality of care) is the most suitable for use in individuals with DM eligible for palliative care by means of the QCQ-PC.