The need for supportive care among head and neck cancer patients: psychometric assessment of the Dutch version of the Supportive Care Needs Survey Short-Form (SCNS-SF34) and the newly developed head and neck cancer module (SCNS-HNC).
The purpose of this study is to assess the psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the 34-item Short-Form Supportive Care Needs Survey (SCNS-SF34) and the newly developed module for head and neck cancer (HNC) patients (SCNS-HNC).



HNC patients were included from two cross-sectional studies. Content validity of the SCNS-HNC was analysed by examining redundancy and completeness of items. Factor structure was assessed using confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses. Cronbach's alpha, Spearman's correlation, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskall-Wallis and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were used to assess internal consistency, construct validity and test-retest reliability.



Content validity of the SCNS-HNC was good, although some HNC topics were missing. For the SCNS-SF34, a four-factor structure was found, namely physical and daily living, psychological, sexuality and health system and information and patient support (alpha = .79 to .95). For the SCNS-HNC, a two-factor structure was found, namely HNC-specific functioning and lifestyle (alpha = .89 and .60). Respectively, 96 and 89 % of the hypothesised correlations between the SCNS-SF34 or SCNS-HNC and other patient-reported outcome measures were found; 57 and 67 % also showed the hypothesised magnitude of correlation. The SCNS-SF34 domains discriminated between treatment procedure (physical and daily living p = .02 and psychological p = .01) and time since treatment (health system, information and patient support p = .02). Test-retest reliability of SCNS-SF34 domains and HNC-specific functioning domain was above .70 (ICC = .74 to .83), and ICC = .67 for the lifestyle domain. Floor effects ranged from 21.1 to 70.9 %.



The SCNS-SF34 and SCNS-HNC are valid and reliable instruments to evaluate the need for supportive care among (Dutch) HNC patients.
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Cancer Center Amsterdam (CCA), VU University Medical Center, PO Box 7057, 1007 MB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Femke
F
Jansen
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VU University Medical Center, PO Box 7057, 1007 MB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Birgit I
BI
Witte
Department of Clinical Psychology, EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Cornelia F
CF
van Uden-Kraan
Department of Clinical Psychology, EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Anna M
AM
Braspenning
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Cancer Center Amsterdam (CCA), VU University Medical Center, PO Box 7057, 1007 MB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
C René
CR
Leemans
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Cancer Center Amsterdam (CCA), VU University Medical Center, PO Box 7057, 1007 MB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. IM.Verdonck@vumc.nl.|Department of Clinical Psychology, EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. IM.Verdonck@vumc.nl.
Irma M
IM
Verdonck-de Leeuw
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
Head and neck cancer; Internal consistency; Psychometric characteristics; Reliability; Supportive care needs; Validity