Validation of the Cancer Dyspnea Scale in Vietnamese persons with lung cancer
Keywords:
Cancer Dyspnea Scale, Dyspnea, Lung cancer, Scale validationAbstract
Background: Dyspnea in Vietnamese persons with lung cancer is highly problematic. The accurate measurement of dyspnea is essential for effective research, diagnosis, and management of this symptom. Nevertheless, no standardized measurement of dyspnea is available in Vietnam. This study aimed to validate the Cancer Dyspnea Scale in Vietnamese lung cancer patients.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 6 oncology centers in Vietnam. A convenience sample of 246 lung cancer patients answered to the Cancer Dyspnea Scale Vietnamese version (CDS-V). Five content validity experts were consulted, Exploratory Factor Analysis was employed to examine construct validity, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to assess the internal consistency of the CDS-V.
Results: The age of participants ranged from 47 to 79 years, with the mean age of 60.79 + 6.59 years. The majority of the participants was male (72.8%) and the mean duration from diagnosis with a lung tumor was 5.44 ±3.97 years. The CVI of CDS-V was acceptable (1.0). Twelve items of CDS-V formed three factors (accounting for 59.29% of the variance of dyspnea), which were similar to factors found in the original CDS (Sense of Anxiety, Sense of Effort, and Sense of Discomfort). The Cronbach’s alpha of the total scale was 0.86. Corresponding coefficients for Sense of Effort (item 1, 2, 3), Sense of Anxiety (item 5, 7, 9, and 11), and Sense of Discomfort (item 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12) subscales were 0.86, 0.70, and 0.73, respectively. Corrected Item-to-Total Correlation coefficients of items ranged from 0.39 to 0.64.
Conclusions: CDS-V is a reliable and valid instrument in the study group. The application of this scale would facilitate practices of researchers and clinicians. Further studies of other psychometric properties, such as predictive validity, discriminant validity or test-retest reliability of the CDS-V are recommended, as is further assessment of the generalizability of these results.
