Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Measuring breast cancer-specific health-related quality of life in South Asia: psychometric properties of the Sinhala version of the EORTC QLQ-BR23

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:
Quality of Life Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Sinhala version of the breast cancer-specific health-related quality of life (HRQL) module of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (QLQ-BR23).

Methods

Psychometric testing assessed the hypothesized scale structure, internal consistency, construct validity and acceptability of the Sinhala version of the QLQ-BR23 in a consecutive series of 356 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients recruited from tertiary care oncology treatment centres in Sri Lanka.

Results

Compliance and self-completion rates were high (98% and 88%, respectively), and missing data low (0.06%). Multitrait scaling confirmed the scale structure of the QLQ-BR23 with excellent item convergence (95%), item discrimination (99%), and scaling success (99%) rates. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the scales for internal consistency reliability ranged from 0.68 to 0.93. Construct validity was confirmed with satisfactory results for interscale correlations and known-groups comparisons. QLQ-BR23 item-scale correlations met or exceeded the convergent validity criterion of 0.40 for all but one item. QLQ-BR23 interscale correlations met this criterion for three comparisons and for five comparisons with conceptually related QLQ-C30 scales. Correlations between QLQ-BR23 scales and QLQ-C30 functional scales were lower as expected. As expected, most dimensions of the QLQ-BR23 were able to discriminate clearly between pretreatment and current treatment patients.

Conclusion

Overall psychometric results for the Sinhala version of the QLQ-BR23 confirmed it as a reliable and valid questionnaire for assessing breast cancer-specific HRQL in Sri Lanka.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

References

  1. Sloan, F. A., & Gelband, H. (Eds.) (2006). Cancer control opportunities in low- and middle-income countries. Washington DC: The National Academies.

    Google Scholar 

  2. National Cancer Control Programme. (2006). Cancer incidence data: Sri Lanka 2000, cancer registry. Maharagama: National Cancer Control Programme.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Sprangers, M. A. G., Groenvold, M., Arraras, J. I., et al. (1996). The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Breast Cancer-Specific Quality-of-Life Questionnaire Module: First results from a three-country field study. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 14(10), 2756–2768.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Jayasekara, H. D. M. H., & Rajapaksa, L. C. (2006). An assessment of quality-of-life and satisfaction with care in patients diagnosed with some common cancers. Thesis, Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo.

  5. Cull, A., Sprangers, M., Bjordal, K., Aaronson, N., West, K., & Bottomley, A. on behalf of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Study Group. (2002). EORTC quality of life group translation procedure (2nd ed.). Brussels: EORTC.

  6. World Health Organization (WHO). (1992). International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (10th revision). Geneva: WHO.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Tabachnik, B. J., & Fidel, L. S. (1993). Using multivariate statistics. London: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Aaronson, N. K., Ahmedzai, S., Bergman, B., et al. (1993). The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30: A Quality-of-Life Instrument for use in International Clinical Trials in Oncology. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 85, 365–376. doi:10.1093/jnci/85.5.365.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Fayers, P. M., Aaronson, N. K., Bjordal, K., Groenvold, M., Curran, D., & Bottomley, A., on behalf of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Study Group. (2001). The EORTC QLQ-C30 scoring manual (3rd ed.). Brussels: EORTC.

  10. Nie, N. H., Hull, C. H., Jenkins, J. G., Steinbrenner, K., & Bent, D. H. (1975). Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Hays, R. D., Hayashi, T., Carson, S., & Ware, J. E. (1988). User’s guide for the multitrait analysis program (MAP). Santa Monica, Carlifornia: Rand Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 297–334. doi:10.1007/BF02310555.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory. USA: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kerlinger, F. N. (1978). Foundations of behavioural research. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Young, T., De Haes, H., Curran, D., Fayers, P., Brandberg, Y., Vanvooden, V. & Bottomley, A., on behalf of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group and Quality of Life Unit. (2002). Guidelines for assessing quality of life in EORTC clinical trials (version 2). Brussels: EORTC.

  16. Chie, W. C., Chang, K. J., Huang, C. S., & Kuo, W. H. (2003). Quality of life of breast cancer patients in Taiwan: validation of the Taiwan Chinese version of the EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-BR23. Psychooncology, 12(7), 729–735. doi:10.1002/pon.727.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Montazeri, A., Harirchi, I., Vahdani, M., et al. (2000). The EORTC breast cancer-specific quality of life questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-BR23): Translation and validation study of the Iranian version. Quality of Life Research, 9(2), 177–184. doi:10.1023/A:1008918310251.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The study was funded by the World Health Organization Country Office for Sri Lanka through Agreement for Performance of Work No SE/SRL OSD 001/RB 04/EC 1/P1/A2.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health, No 231, De Saram Place, Colombo 10, Sri Lanka

    Harindra Jayasekara

  2. Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic, and Analytic Epidemiology, School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne, Level 2, 723 Swanston Street, Carlton, VIC, 3053, Australia

    Harindra Jayasekara

  3. Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Kynsey Road, Colombo 8, Sri Lanka

    Lalini C. Rajapaksa

  4. Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Yvonne Brandberg

Authors
  1. Harindra Jayasekara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lalini C. Rajapaksa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yvonne Brandberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Harindra Jayasekara.

Appendix

Appendix

Structure of the EORTC QLQ-BR23

Scales/single items

Scales

Body image

    Feeling physically less attractive

    Feeling less feminine

    Difficulty in looking at yourself naked

    Feeling dissatisfied with the body

Sexual functioning

    Interest in sex

    Extent sexually active (with or without intercourse)

Side effects of systemic therapy

    Dry mouth

    Food and drink tasting different than usual

    Painful, irritated or watery eyes

    Loss of hair

    Feeling ill or unwell

    Hot flushes

    Headaches

Breast symptoms

    Pain in the area of the affected breast

    Swelling in the area of the affected breast

    Oversensitivity in the area of the affected breast

    Skin problems on or in the area of the affected breast (e.g., itchy, dry, flaky)

Arm symptoms

    Pain in the arm or shoulder

    Swelling of arm or hand

    Difficulty in raising the arm or moving it sideways

Single items

Sexual enjoyment

    Extent to which sex was enjoyable

Future perspective

    Worry about future health

Being upset with hair loss

    Being upset with the loss of hair

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jayasekara, H., Rajapaksa, L.C. & Brandberg, Y. Measuring breast cancer-specific health-related quality of life in South Asia: psychometric properties of the Sinhala version of the EORTC QLQ-BR23. Qual Life Res 17, 927–932 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-008-9359-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-008-9359-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation