Development and Validation of a Quality of Life Instrument for Patients With Liver Cancer QOL-LC

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To develop a self-administered quality of life instrument for patients with liver cancer. METHODS: The programmed decision procedure, the theory and methodology in developing rating scale were used to establish the instrument. On the basis of the data from 105 liver cancer patients, the psychometric properties of the scale were evaluated by indicators of validity, reliability coefficients, and statistical methods like structural equation modeling. RESULTS: The test-retest coefficients for physical, psychological, symptom/side effects, social domains, and the overall scale are 0.76, 0.86, 0.71, 0.80, and 0.84, respectively. The α coefficients for the above 4 domains are 0.78, 0.81, 0.75, and 0.68, respectively. The correlation analysis and the structural equation model showed good construct validity. The criterion-related was confirmed by using the functional living index-cancer simultaneously. The scale can reflect the changes of patients' quality of life after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The instrument is of good validity, reliability, and responsiveness and has been broadly used in China.