[Oncological Patients' Perception of Received Information: Adaptation and Psychometric Evaluation of the EORTC QLQINFO25 Questionnaire in Chilean Patients].

Abstract

Cancer diagnosis is a dramatic event severely affecting the quality of life of patients and their family group. Clear and precise information during the disease course and treatment is crucial.

Aim: To adapt and assess the psychometric properties of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-INFO25 questionnaire in Chilean patients.

Methods and patients: The EORTC QLQ-INFO25 was trans-culturally adapted according to EORTC instructions. The psychometric performance of the adapted instrument was assessed in 265 patients (between 18 and 85 years of age) in different stages of their disease (diagnostic and treatment). The convergent and discriminant validity of the items was calculated using multi-trait and multi-item matrices. Cronbach's α coefficient was used to evaluate the instrument's internal consistency and temporal stability was evaluated by test-retest correlations.

Results: Most of the participants were female (66%) and had ambulatory treatment (84.2%). The internal consistency of the instrument was 0.92. The multi-trait and multi-item matrix showed the highest correlations between items from scales of information about medical tests, treatments, and other services, which agrees with the instrument's hypothetical structure. However, the dimension of the illness shows partial agreement with the expected structure. The test-retest correlations were significant, exhibiting an average of 0.68±0.14 (SD).

Conclusion: The adapted version of the EORTC QLQ-INFO25 questionnaire presents adequate psychometric properties and, therefore, is a reliable tool for Chilean patients.