The Feelings About genomiC Testing Results (FACToR) Questionnaire: Development and Preliminary Validation.

Area of Science:

• Psychosocial impact of genomic medicine
• Patient-reported outcome measures
• Genomic testing interpretation

Background:

• Returning genomic findings to patients presents unique psychosocial challenges.
• Existing instruments may not fully capture the nuances of patient responses to genomic results.
• Validating tools to assess these impacts is crucial for ethical and effective genomic healthcare.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Feelings About genomiC Testing Results (FACToR) instrument.
• To create a brief, reliable measure of the psychosocial impact of receiving genomic findings.
• To assess patient emotions, uncertainty, and privacy concerns related to genomic testing.

Main Methods:

• Modified the Multidimensional Impact of Cancer Risk Assessment (MICRA) questionnaire.
• Utilized literature review, focus groups, and cognitive interviews for item generation.
• Evaluated psychometric properties (reliability, validity) in 122 participants from the NEXT Medicine Study.

Main Results:

• The 12-item FACToR instrument with four subscales (negative emotions, positive feelings, uncertainty, privacy concerns) was developed.
• All subscales demonstrated good internal consistency (0.66-0.78) and test-retest reliability (0.65-0.91).
• Positive feelings and uncertainty subscales showed known-group validity.

Conclusions:

• The FACToR instrument demonstrates promising psychometric properties for measuring the psychosocial impact of genomic testing results.
• This brief tool can be valuable in research and clinical practice for understanding patient experiences.
• Further evaluation in diverse populations is recommended to confirm its utility.