Reliability and Validity of the Turkish Version of the FACIT-PAL Quality of Life Instrument

Abstract

Context. The accurate measurement of quality of life (QoL) among people with chronic and incurable illnesses is essential for evaluating service delivery, understanding the impact of illness and treatment effects, and testing intervention effectiveness. Palliative care interventions are relatively new in Turkey; therefore, it is important that reliable and valid QoL instruments are available to evaluate palliative care effectiveness in Turkish speakers. Objectives. The purpose of this study was to translate, linguistically validate, and determine the psychometric properties of the newly translated Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness TherapyePalliative Care (FACIT-Pal) scale (FACIT-Pal-TR) for Turkish-speaking cancer patients. Methods. We used standard multilingual translation and validation methods for the initial translation of the FACIT-Pal-TR and then assessed the psychometric properties of reliability and validity of the translated scale. We used the Karnofsky Performance Scale and Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale to assess concurrent and construct validity. Results. A convenience sample of 232 cancer patients participated in this study. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of FACIT-Pal-TR was 0.932 (between 0.732 and 0.860 for subscales). There was a statistically significant relationship between test and retest scores (r ¼ 0.877, P < 0.001). The factor loadings of FACIT-Pal-TR were between 0.205 and 0.815. FACIT-Pal-TR construct validity was acceptable with 45 items and five subscales. There were statistically significant relationships between FACIT-Pal-TR scores and Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (P < 0.001) and Karnofsky Performance Scale (r ¼ 0.656; P < 0.001) scores. Conclusions. The FACIT-Pal-TR demonstrates strong reliability and validity for evaluating palliative careespecific QoL in Turkish cancer patients.

Validation of the Spanish Versions of FACIT-PAL and FACIT-PAL-14 in Palliative Patients

“…In this study, the FACIT-PAL subscales obtained values ranging from 0.640 to 0.816. These values are similar to other validation studies, such as the original version [ 20 ] with values ranging from 0.75 to 0.94, the Turkish version [ 9 ] from 0.732 to 0.94, and the African version [ 10 ] from 0.78 to 0.90 ( Table 5 ).…”

“…The final sample was 131 participants. Other studies have had different samples sizes, as in the Colombian validation with 10 participants [ 19 ], the study performed in England with 256 participants [ 20 ], the Turkish study [ 9 ] recruiting 232 participants, another study developed in three African countries [ 10 ] recruiting 461 participants, and a Canadian study [ 21 ] with 116 participants.…”

“…The results obtained also showed a good correlation of the scale. The Turkish study [ 9 ] also calculated an exploratory factor analysis, and the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value was 0.892.…”

“…To have these instruments in Spanish can help clinicians in palliative care units. These scales have been translated in other languages, such as Turkish [ 9 ] and African [ 10 ].…”

Progress in palliative care for cancer in Turkey: a review of the literature

“…Overall respondents in lower HDI countries expressed significantly more positive views. Bagcivan et al [ 112 ] English Journal paper Tool validation To determine the psychometric properties of the newly translated Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Palliative Care (FACIT-Pal) scale for Turkish-speaking cancer patients-FACIT-Pal-TR. The FACIT-Pal-TR demonstrates strong reliability and validity for evaluating PC specific QoL in Turkish cancer patients.…”