title: An investigation of anxiety about radiotherapy deploying the Radiotherapy Categorical Anxiety Scale.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Radiotherapy is one of the major methods for treating cancer, but many patients undergoing radiotherapy have deep concerns about receiving radiation treatment. This problem is not generally appreciated and has not been adequately studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  The objective of this investigation was to empirically investigate the anxieties that cancer patients feel towards radiotherapy by using questionnaires to classify and quantitatively measure their concerns. A preliminary interview to develop a questionnaire was carried out with 48 patients receiving radiotherapy to discover their anxieties about on-going treatments. Subsequently, a main study was performed using a questionnaire with 185 patients to classify their types of anxiety and to ascertain the reliability and validity of the responses. Confirmatory factor analysis was then carried out with a 17-item Radiotherapy Categorical Anxiety Scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three anxiety factors were abstracted by factor analysis: (1) adverse effects of radiotherapy, (2) environment of radiotherapy, and (3) treatment effects of radiotherapy. Reliability, content validity, and concurrent validity were obtained. The adequacy of the three-factor model of anxiety concerning radiotherapy was confirmed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A 17-item Radiotherapy Categorical Anxiety Scale was formulated to quantitatively measure the specific types of anxiety among cancer patients receiving radiotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Welfare, Kyushu University of Health and Welfare, 1714-1 Yoshino-cho, Nobeoka, 882-8508, Miyazaki, Japan. ahead1973@ybb.ne.jp
authors.forename: Sakie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shimotsu
authors.forename: Kumiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Karasawa
authors.forename: Eri
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kawase
authors.forename: Kana
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Anneyuko I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Izawa
authors.forename: Naoshi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Horikawa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
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