Psychometric properties of self-reported financial toxicity measures in cancer survivors: a systematic review protocol using COSMIN methodology

Abstract

IntroductionDue to the higher costs associated with advancements in cancer treatment and longer duration of cancer survivorship, increasing financial toxicity has become a great threat to survivors, caregivers and public healthcare systems. Since accurate and reproducible measures are prerequisites for robust results, choosing an acceptable measure with strong psychometric properties to assess financial toxicity is essential. However, a description of the psychometric properties of existing measures is still lacking. The aim of this study is to apply COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) methodology to systematically review the content and structural validity of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) of financial toxicity for cancer survivors.Methods and analysisPubMed/Medline, Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), Web of Science, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and Cochrane Library (Wiley) will be comprehensively searched from database inception to 15 November 2019. Studies that report the measurement properties of PROMs assessing financial toxicity for cancer survivors will be included. The evaluation of measurement properties, data extraction and data synthesis will be conducted according to the COSMIN methodology.Ethics and disseminationNo individual data are involved in this systematic review. The results will be disseminated to a clinical audience and policy-makers though peer-reviewed journals and conferences and will support researchers in choosing the best measure to evaluate the financial toxicity of cancer survivors.

Psychometric properties of self-reported financial toxicity measures in cancer survivors: a systematic review

“…20 21 The protocol of this review was published in BMJ OPEN in 2020. 22 The registration number of the protocol in PROSPERO was CRD42021254721.…”

“…To include more studies published in 2021 and 2022, the end date of the search was updated to February 2022. 22 In PubMed/Medline, we searched papers in English using MeSH terms ([cancer OR neoplasms] AND ["cancer survivors" OR patient OR survivors] AND "cost of illness") combined with (cancer OR [patient* OR survivor*] AND [cost OR bill* OR expense OR productivity loss OR "out-of-pocket" OR "economic burden" OR "financial toxicity" OR "financial hardship" OR "financial burden"]). The COSMIN measurement properties filter and exclusion filter were also used in the search box.…”

Assessing the Relationship between Socio-demographic, Clinical Profile and Financial Toxicity: Evidence from Cancer Survivors in Sarawak

“…Assessing the Relationship between Socio-demographic, Clinical Profile and Financial Toxicity: Evidence from Cancer Survivors in Sarawak inequality of financial toxicity (FT) of cancer survivors (Zhu et al, 2020). FT describes the financial burden of cancer care faced by patients and their family members (Zafar et al, 2013).…”

Prevalence and risk factors of self-reported financial toxicity in cancer survivors: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…has not yet been quanti ed in a standardized way [9][10][11] . In the long term, a lack of standardization in measurement can hinder the choice of PROMs for subsequent cross-sectional surveys and comparisons across studies.…”

“…In addition, the use of survey tools lacks consistency [9][10][11] , prior studies suggested that FT should be measured using patient-reported outcomes(PROMs)to re ect cancer survivors' thoughts, complaints and opinions that any numbers or observers cannot [10][11] . However, the development and veri cation of current PROMs vary greatly, and none of them are considered the gold standard.…”