Assessing health-related quality of life of Chinese-American breast cancer survivors: a measurement validation study.
BACKGROUND
This study reports on the internal consistency and construct validity of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General (FACT-G v.4) and 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12 v.2) health-related quality of life (HRQOL) instruments with Chinese-American breast cancer survivors (BCS).


METHODS
Participants completed mailed questionnaires at baseline and 12-month follow-up. HRQOL was measured using the FACT-G and the SF-12. The measures were evaluated by construct validity and reliability tests. Factor analyses were performed in a two-wave assessment through exploratory and confirmatory analyses at baseline and follow-up.


RESULTS
Seventy-four Chinese-American BCS participated. Excellent internal consistency (α > 0.85) and good construct validity for the FACT-G (five factors) and the SF-12 (two factors) were observed. Factor structure of both measures accounted for 70% of the common variance in physical, social/family, emotional, and functional well-being subscales for the FACT-G and in physical and mental components for the SF-12.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data demonstrated good internal consistency and construct validity of the measures. The psychometric findings demonstrate the utility of the FACT-G and the SF-12 to assess HRQOL among Chinese-American BCS.
Center of Community Alliance for Research and Education (CCARE), Department of Population Sciences, City of Hope National Medical Center, San Dimas, CA 91773, USA. kashing@coh.org
Kimlin
K
Ashing-Giwa
Chun Nok
CN
Lam
Bin
B
Xie
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*