FACT-G: reliability and validity of the Malayalam translation.
BACKGROUND
Emphasis is currently being placed on the need for quality of life in cancer survivors. There is a great need to identify an appropriate tool for quality of life estimation in these linguistically and culturally different settings.


METHODS
The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) questionnaire was translated into the Malayalam language complying with the standard cross-cultural translation methodology. The tool was validated and used for estimating quality of life (QOL) of 214 cancer patients undergoing treatment with curative intent.


RESULTS
Cronbach's alpha for the Malayalam version of the FACT-G was 0.8, and for the subscales it ranged from 0.64 to 0.83, compared to source tool alpha of 0.89, with the subscale's ranging from 0.63 to 0.89. The mean overall FACT-G score was 79.8 (standard deviation [SD] = 18.7). Socio-economic factors such as education, education of the spouse, occupation of the spouse, and family income were found to influence FACT-G scores.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite cultural variations, the local Malayalam language version of the FACT-G scale was found to be reliable like the source scale and sensitive cross-culturally. The instrument makes it possible to identify domains influencing QOL and thereby may help direct interventions to them.
Thomas
B C
BC
Department of Surgical Oncology, Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum, India.
Pandey
M
M
Ramdas
K
K
Sebastian
P
P
Nair
M K
MK
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology; D014175:Translating; D014177:Translations