Background: The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group developed a questionnaire to assess sexual health in patients with cancer and cancer... Show moreBackground: The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group developed a questionnaire to assess sexual health in patients with cancer and cancer survivors. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the questionnaire. Methods: The 22-item EORTC sexual health questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-SH22) was administered with the EORTC QLQ-C30 to 444 patients with cancer. The hypothesised scale structure, reliability and validity were evaluated through standardised psychometric procedures. Results: The cross-cultural field study showed that the majority of patients (94.7%) were able to complete the QLQ-SH22 in less than 20 min; 89% of the study participants did not need any help to fill in the questionnaire. Multi-item multi-trait scaling analysis confirmed the hypothesised scale structure with two multi-item scales (sexual satisfaction, sexual pain) and 11 single items (including five conditional items and four gender-specific items). The internal consistency yielded acceptable Cronbach's alpha coefficients (.90 for the sexual satisfaction scale, .80 for the sexual pain scale). The test-retest correlations (Pearson's r) ranged from .70 to .93 except for the scale communication with professionals (.67) and male body image (.69). The QLQ-SH22 discriminates well between subgroups of patients differing in terms of their performance and treatment status. Conclusion: The study supports the reliability, the content and construct validity of the QLQSH22. The newly developed questionnaire is clinically applicable to assess sexual health of patients with cancer at different treatment stages and during survivorship for clinical trials and for clinical practice. 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Show less
Aim: A validation study was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire-Endometrial... Show moreAim: A validation study was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire-Endometrial Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-EN24). This module was designed to assess disease and treatment specific aspects of the quality of life (QoL) of patients with endometrial cancer. Methods: Two hundred and sixty-eight women with endometrial cancer were recruited in different phases of treatment: after pelvic surgery (Group 1); during adjuvant chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy (Group 2); after completion of treatment (Group 3). Patients completed the EORTC QLQ-C30, the endometrial cancer module and a short debriefing questionnaire. Results: Multi-trait scaling analyses confirmed the hypothesised scale structure of the QLQ-EN24. Internal consistency reliability was good with Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from 0.74 to 0.86 (lymphoedema 0.80, urological symptoms 0.75, gastrointestinal symptoms 0.74, body image problems 0.86 and sexual/vaginal problems 0.86). Convergent and discriminant validity did not show any scaling errors for the subscales. The QLQ-EN24 module discriminated well between clinically different groups of patients. All items exhibited a high completion rate with less than 2% missing values except for the sexuality items (19%). Conclusion: The validation study supports the reliability, the convergent and divergent validity of the EORTC QLQ-EN24. This newly developed QLQ-EN24 module is a useful instrument for the assessment of the QoL in patients treated for endometrial cancer in clinical trials. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Show less
