Development of Improved Version of Quality of Life Assessment Instrument for Lung Cancer Patients Based on...

To develop an improved version of the Quality-of-Life Assessment instrument for Lung Cancer Patients Based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (QLASTCM-Lu) and to evaluate its psychometric property.

The structured group method and the theory in developing rating scale were employed to revise the preliminary scale. The psychometric property (reliability, validity, and responsiveness) of the established QLASTCM-Lu (modified) were evaluated by quality of life data measured in 100 lung cancer patients. Statistical analyses were made accordingly by way of correlation analysis, factor analysis and paired t-test.

The internal consistency reliability of the overall scale and all domains was from 0.80 to 0.94. Correlation and factor analyses demonstrated that the scale was good in construct validity. The criterion validity was formed with European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer-Quality of Life Questionnaire-Lung Cancer (EORTC QLQ-LC43) as the criterion. Statistically significant changes were found apart from such domain as "mental condition" and "social function", with the standardized response means being close to those of QLQ-LC43.

QLASTCM-Lu (modified) could be used to measure the quality of life of lung cancer patients with good reliability, validity and a certain degree of responsiveness.