The Psychometric Properties of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Questionnaire (PCL-5) for Cancer Patients in Iran

Cancer is known as a common chronic disease that many aspects of its diagnosis and treatment may manifest traumatic episodes and lead to the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with cancer. Avoidance symptoms in PTSD often delay individuals from seeking professional assistance. Therefore, the PTSD Checklist for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5th Edition or DSM-5 (PCL-5) can evaluate PTSD conceptually and psychometrically instead of avoidance responses.

Accordingly, this research aimed to explore the psychometric features of the PCL-5 Persian version in the population of gastrointestinal cancer patients in Iran.

As the instrument of the research, the Persian version of PCL-5 was conducted on 486 gastrointestinal cancer patients who referred to Baghban Clinic, the cancer research center of "REDACTED" University of Medical Sciences, and Imam Khomeini Hospital in Sari from July 2021 to May 2022. The used questionnaire survey included two sections. The first part consisted of questions regarding participants' profiles, such as age, gender, and job status. In the second section, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder item 20 was used to measure (PCL-5) Participants were asked to respond to each statement with a 5-point range Likert scale from 0 to 4.

Exploratory factor analysis showed four-factor structures for PCL-5, explaining 43.17% of the total variance. According to the mentioned analysis, each fit index verified the model fit. All internal consistency coefficients were also predicted to be acceptable reliability. It can be concluded from the data that highlighted good psychometric features for PCL-5, suggesting the effectiveness of this scale for the screening of PTSD in gastrointestinal cancer patients.

This study indicates the effectiveness and usefulness of the Persian version of the PCL-5 scale for assessing post-traumatic stress in the cases suffering from gastrointestinal cancer.