title: The subjective experience of young women with non-metastatic breast cancer: the Young Women with Breast Cancer Inventory.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The subjective experience of young women with breast cancer has some particular features linked to the impact of the disease and its treatment on their age-related issues (e.g. desire for a child, couple relationship, career management). Despite these specific concerns, no questionnaire currently targets the young breast cancer patient's quality of life, subjective experience or common problems when facing cancer. This study presents the psychometric validation of an inventory that aimed to measure the impact of breast cancer on the quality of life of young women (<45 years of age) with non-metastatic disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  546 women aged <45 years when diagnosed with a non-metastatic breast cancer were recruited in 27 French cancer research and treatment centers. They answered a self-reported questionnaire created from verbatim collected by non-directive interviews carried out with 69 patients in a first qualitative study. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses were conducted in order to obtain the final structure of the scale. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability and concurrent validity with quality of life questionnaires currently used (QLQ-C30 and the QLQ-BR23 module) were then assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The YW-BCI36 contains 36 items and highlights 8 factors: 1) feeling of couple cohesion, 2) negative affectivity and apprehension about the future, 3) management of child(ren) and of everyday life, 4) sharing with close relatives, 5) body image and sexuality, 6) financial difficulties, 7) deterioration of relationships with close relatives, and 8) career management. Psychometric analyses indicated good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha values ranging from 0.76 to 0.91) and temporal reliability (Bravais-Pearson correlations ranging from 0.66 to 0.85). As expected, there were quite strong correlations between the YW-BCI36 and the QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BR23 scores (r ranging from 0.20 to -0.66), indicating adequate concurrent validity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The YW-BCI36 was confirmed as a valid scale for evaluating the subjective experience of breast cancer in young women. This instrument could help to identify the problems of these women more precisely, in order to respond to them better by an optimal care management. This scale may improve the medical, psychological and social care of breast cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Université de Lille - SCALab UMR CNRS 9193, Rue du Barreau, BP 60149, F-59653, Villeneuve d'Ascq cedex, France. veronique.christophe@univ-lille3.fr.|SIRIC ONCOLille - Maison Régionale de la Recherche Clinique - 6, rue du Professeur Laguesse, 59037, Lille cedex, France. veronique.christophe@univ-lille3.fr.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Christophe
authors.affiliation: Université de Lille - SCALab UMR CNRS 9193, Rue du Barreau, BP 60149, F-59653, Villeneuve d'Ascq cedex, France. christelle.duprez@univ-lille3.fr.|SIRIC ONCOLille - Maison Régionale de la Recherche Clinique - 6, rue du Professeur Laguesse, 59037, Lille cedex, France. christelle.duprez@univ-lille3.fr.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Duprez
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, Centre de Recherche PsyCLÉ (EA 3273), 29, avenue Robert Schuman, F-13621, Aix en Provence cedex 1, France. anne.congard@univ-amu.fr.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Congard
authors.affiliation: Université de Lille - SCALab UMR CNRS 9193, Rue du Barreau, BP 60149, F-59653, Villeneuve d'Ascq cedex, France. pascal.antoine@univ-lille3.fr.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Antoine
authors.affiliation: Institut de Cancérologie de Lorraine- Centre Alexis Vautrin, 6 Avenue de Bourgogne, 54519, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France. a.lesur@nancy.fnclcc.fr.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lesur
authors.affiliation: Université de Lille - SCALab UMR CNRS 9193, Rue du Barreau, BP 60149, F-59653, Villeneuve d'Ascq cedex, France. emmanuelle.fournier@univ-lille3.fr.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fournier
authors.affiliation: Centre Oscar Lambret - Département de Sénologie, BP 307, F-59020, Lille cedex, France. l-vanlemmens@o-lambret.fr.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vanlemmens
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001828:Body Image; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult