title: Taiwanese version of the M. D. Anderson symptom inventory: symptom assessment in cancer patients.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to validate the Taiwanese version of the M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI-T) in a sample of 556 Taiwanese patients with multiple diagnoses of cancer. The internal consistency Cronbach alpha was 0.89 for symptom severity items and 0.94 for interference items. The test-retest reliability was 0.97 for the severity composite score and 0.96 for the interference composite score over a 3-day interval in a sample of 12 patients. Construct validity was established by factor analysis, which revealed a two-factor structure. Concurrent validity was examined by correlating the MADSI-T scores and scores of the Medical Outcome Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey. Known-group validity was established by comparing MDASI-T scores between patients having low functional status and those having high functional status (Karnofsky Performance Status scores<or=50 or >50, respectively) and between inpatients and outpatients. The MDASI-T's sensitivity (its ability to detect small differences in reporting variations) was examined by comparing the MDASI-T composite symptom scores and composite interference scores before, during, and one week after treatment in a sample of 20 breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. The MDASI-T is a reliable, valid, and sensitive instrument for measuring the severity and interference with daily life of cancer-related symptoms among Taiwanese cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Tainan, Taiwan. clin@tmu.edu.tw
authors.forename: Chia-Chin
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Ai-Ping
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Charles S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Cleeland
authors.forename: Tito R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Mendoza
authors.forename: Xin Shelley
authors.initials: XS
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D013624:Taiwan