Abstract

SANCHEZ-PEDRAZA¹, Ricardo; SIERRA-MATAMOROS², Fabio Alexander  and  RANGEL-GARZON, Claudia Ximena. Evaluating emotional symptoms within a quality of life construct in cancer patients using multidimensional scaling. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2011, vol.59, n.1, pp.19-33. ISSN 0120-0011.

Background. The available estimators for emotional functioning have less validity and reliability than other dimensions measured by quality of life scales. These items' consistency must thus be evaluated when such instruments are used in differing cultural contexts. Objectives. Describing the functioning of items for measuring the emotional domain on EORTC QLQ-C30 and FACT-G scales in cancer patients. Material and methods. EORTC QLQ-C30 and FACTG scales were used with 409 gastric or colorectal cancer patients attending the Instituto Nacional de Cancerología from 2006-2010. The multidimensional scaling technique was used for evaluating emotional symptoms on these scales. Results. A bi-dimensional structure was the most suitable for the analysis. Items are grouped on both scales according to the theoretical model's dimensions. The emotional domain items on EORTC QLQ-C30 had poor correlation with other components on the scale whilst the FACT-G emotional state domain had heterogeneous structure and greater correlation with physical symptoms. Conclusion. Emotional symptoms were poorly correlated with the construct's other components when measuring quality of life in our sample. Such findings could be explained by cultural differences in emotional expression or changes in meaning related to the translation of the terms from English

Keywords : quality of life; questionnaires; stomach neoplasms; colorectal neoplasms; facto analysis; statistical; emotions; affective symptoms.

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