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Reliability and validity of the functional assessment of cancer therapy-ovarian
K Basen-Engquist1, D Bodurka-Bevers, M A Fitzgerald
1Department of Behavioral Science, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Purpose:
To report the reliability and validity of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Ovarian (FACT-O) in a consecutive series of outpatients with epithelial ovarian cancer.
Patients And Methods:
Two hundred thirty-two ovarian cancer patients attending an outpatient gynecologic oncology clinic completed questionnaires at baseline. The patients' FACT-O scores were compared with their performance status, disease stage, treatment status, and other factors hypothesized to be related to quality of life. Patients received a second questionnaire either one week after baseline to assess the instrument's test-retest reliability and/or two months after baseline to evaluate its sensitivity to change in performance status.
Results:
Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the FACT-O were adequate. Overall, the scales correlated with other measures as expected; all correlations were in the hypothesized direction. Patients with advanced disease, poor performance status, and who were receiving active treatment had lower scores on physical, functional, and ovarian cancer-specific scales. The total FACT-O and emotional well-being scores were lower for patients with poor performance status and patients in active treatment. The FACT-O total and all subscale scores except emotional well-being were sensitive to decreases in performance status.
Conclusion:
Overall, the FACT-O provides a reliable and valid assessment of the quality of life of women with ovarian cancer, and is appropriate as a brief quality of life assessment in clinical trials and descriptive studies.