Initial psychometric testing of the Head and Neck Cancer Patient Self-Management Inventory (HNC-PSMI)

Head and neck cancer (HNC) and its treatment are associated with significant symptom burden and functional impairment. HNC patients must engage in intensive and complex self-management protocols to minimize acute and late treatment effects. Self-management among HNC patients is understudied due to the limited availability of disease-specific self-management measures. This article describes the initial psychometric testing of the HNC Patient Self-Management Inventory (HNC-PSMI), an instrument that characterizes self-management tasks in the HNC population.

A cross-sectional survey design was used. One hundred HNC patients completed the HNC-PSMI, the Vanderbilt Head and Neck Cancer Symptom Survey plus General Symptom Survey, and the Profile of Mood States-Short Form. To evaluate the psychometric properties of the HNC-PSMI, the relevance of items, internal consistency of domain item responses, and the direction and strength of associations between domain scores and other measures were examined.

There was variability both in the number of self-management tasks performed overall and in each domain as well as in the reported difficulty completing those tasks. Kuder-Richardson values for domains with > 3 items ranged from 0.61 to 0.86. Hypothesized associations were supported.

Overall, the psychometric properties for the HNC-PSMI were acceptable. The HNC-PSMI can be used to advance an understanding of self-management requirements and challenges in HNC patients.