Development, validation, and implementation of a Short Breast Health Perception Questionnaire

Area of Science:

• Women's Health
• Psychometrics
• Breast Cancer Research

Background:

• Assessing health status often relies on questionnaires, with disease-specific tools offering greater precision.
• Breast health perception (BHP) is crucial for women, yet a dedicated measurement tool was lacking.
• This study aimed to develop and validate a short questionnaire to assess BHP.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a valid and reliable short Breast Health Perception Questionnaire (BHPQ).
• To assess the breast health perception of women attending a breast clinic.

Main Methods:

• Instrument development followed by rigorous evaluation of inter-rater agreement (IRA), content validity (I-CVI, S-CVI), and reliability (internal consistency, test-retest).
• The developed BHPQ was administered to 350 women with normal breasts or benign breast disorders.
• Statistical analyses included IRA, CVI, Cronbach's alpha, and intraclass correlation coefficient.

Main Results:

• The 11-item BHPQ demonstrated optimal relevance and clarity (IRA 78.6%, S-CVI 87.35% for clarity, 84.42% for relevance).
• High internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.93) and good to excellent test-retest reliability were confirmed.
• The average BHP score among 350 participants was 43.89 ± 9.09.

Conclusions:

• An 11-item, valid, and reliable Breast Health Perception Questionnaire (BHPQ) has been successfully developed.
• The BHPQ is recommended for use in breast cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment contexts.
• It can also be utilized for assessing BHP across various physiological and reproductive situations.