Development and validation of a psychosocial screening instrument for cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

We are reporting on the development of a psychosocial screening tool for cancer patients. The tool was to be brief, at a relatively low reading level, capture psychological variables relevant to distress and health-related quality-of-life in cancer patients, possess good reliability and validity, and be free of copyright protection.

Method

Item derivation is described, data on reliability and validity as well as norms are reported for three samples of cancer patients (n = 1057; n = 570, n = 101).

Results

The resulting 21-item psychological screen for cancer (PSCAN) assesses perceived social support, desired social support, health-related quality-of-life, anxiety and depression. It has good psychometrics including high internal consistency (alpha averaging .

SUBMITTER: Linden W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1215503 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature