Description of study scales
| Spiritual well-being scale | The FACIT Spiritual Well-Being Scale is a brief self-report measure designed to assess an individual’s spiritual well-being with two sub-scales: spirituality and meaning/peace,68 69 |
| Depression and anxiety | The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS),70–72 |
| Hopelessness | The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) comprises 20 true/false questions that assess the degree of hopelessness,73 74 |
| Quality of life | The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) will assess the participants' quality of life,75 |
| Family relationship Family communication | Family Relationship Index will measure cohesiveness, conflict, and expressiveness among family members,76 Holding Back subscale (HBS) of the Emotional Disclosure Scale is a 10-item measure assessing the degree to which individuals hold back from talking with their partner/caregiver about cancer-related concerns,77–80 |
| Burden | Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) is a 22 item, 5-point Likert scale (never=0, nearly always=4) used widely to assess caregiver burden81–83 |
| Fatalism | Fatalism will be measured with the Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale, which assesses cognitive responses to cancer in five dimensions, including fatalism,84 |
| Religiosity | The Age Universal I/E scale will measure intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity,85 86 |
| Distress | NCCN Distress Thermometer and Problem List is a rapid screening tool for assessing psychological distress in people affected by cancer,87 88 |