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Measuring quality of life among cervical cancer survivors: preliminary assessment of instrumentation validity in a cross-cultural study

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Abstract

Background

With growing interest in cross-cultural and multicultural cancer-related quality of life studies, the need to assess reliability and validity of quality of life measures for linguistically and culturally diverse cancer survivors is pressing.

Methods

Reliability and validity of the English and Spanish versions of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT)-G subscales were tested with a sample of English-speaking European American (n = 273) and ethnic minority American (n = 194), and Spanish-speaking Latina (n = 199) cervical cancer survivors in the U.S.

Results

Reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) were 0.76 or higher across ethnic/linguistic groups except for the emotional wellbeing subscale among Spanish-speaking Latinas (α = 0.64). Factor analyses demonstrated overall measurement equivalence across groups with some ethnic/linguistic variations: there were greater differences between linguistic groups than between ethnic groups. Additionally, the scale’s factor structure was less satisfactory for Spanish-speaking Latinas. The subscales had good concurrent validity with appropriate subscales of the Short Form (SF)-12 and Rand/SF-36 General Health subscale (Pearson’s r 0.53–0.66), suggesting each subscale was assessing its intended construct.

Conclusion

The overall psychometric properties of the FACT-G were cross-culturally equivalent. However, more validation studies are needed for non-English speaking populations particularly with emotional wellbeing. In addition, disaggregated analyses on linguistic groups are recommended unless cross-cultural equivalence is established.

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Abbreviations

CCR:

California Cancer Registry

CCS:

Cervical cancer survivors

FACT-G:

Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General

HRQOL:

Health-related quality of life

MCS:

Mental Component Summary

PCS:

Physical Component Summary

QOL:

Quality of Life

SF:

Short Form

SES:

Socioeconomic status

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Acknowledgements

Research supported by a grant from the California Cancer Research Program (#2110008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Community Alliance for Research and Education (CCARE), Division of Population Sciences, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA, USA

    Kimlin T. Ashing-Giwa

  2. Center for Culture and Health, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Kimlin T. Ashing-Giwa & Judith S. Tejero

  3. School of Nursing and Health Studies, Northern Illinois University, De Kalb, IL, US

    Jinsook Kim

Authors
  1. Kimlin T. Ashing-Giwa
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  2. Jinsook Kim
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  3. Judith S. Tejero
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Correspondence to Jinsook Kim.

Additional information

All participants in this study have provided written informed consent as required by the University of California at Los Angeles Institutional Review Board.

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Ashing-Giwa, K.T., Kim, J. & Tejero, J.S. Measuring quality of life among cervical cancer survivors: preliminary assessment of instrumentation validity in a cross-cultural study. Qual Life Res 17, 147–157 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-007-9276-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-007-9276-3

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