[The Resilience Scale (RS): a statistical comparison of the short and long version based on a patient population]

The use of short and reliable questionnaires in psychological and medical studies is increasingly demanded due to economic, but also ethical reasons. The expectation of low dropout rates within longitudinal studies is an important issue with respect to the validity and quality of clinical studies. In this article, differences of the Resilience Scale (RS) in a short (11 items) and a long version (25 items) are described related to 212 patients treated in a radiooncological unit before receiving radiotherapy. It can be demonstrated that the long and the short version of the Resilience Scale did not appear to differ clinically relevant (differences of means = - 0.080, median = - 0.042, effect size = 0.11). Effect sizes and correlations of the resilience of the patients and other illness- and treatment-related variables such as the need for psychosocial support and fatigue did not change depending on the use of the short or long version of the questionnaire. Therefore, it can be concluded that the short version of the Resilience Scale turns out to be a useful and valid instrument that can be recommended for its use in psychological and medical research.