Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of spiritual needs questionnaire with 27 items (SpNQ-Ch-27) in cancer patients

Abstract Objective To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire with 27 items (SpNQ-Ch-27) for cancer patients. Methods A total of 457 cancer patients in a tertiary hospital in Xinjiang from March to July in 2017 were investigated by using the SpNQ-Ch-27 and convenient sampling method. They were recruited to validate the discrimination, reliability, and validity of the scale. According to the odd and even questionnaire numbers, data were divided into two groups to do exploratory factor analysis group and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. Results SpNQ-Ch-27 included 27 items and six factors, which were extracted by using factor analysis. It could explain 63.08% of the total variance. The total scores of each dimension and the SpNQ-Ch-27 were highly correlated, and the correlation coefficient was from 0.58 to 0.78. For the CFA, the overall fitting ideal was χ 2 / df  = 2.00, RMSEA = 0.07, IFI = 0.93, NFI = 0.86, CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.90; Cronbach's α = 0.90; the dimensions of Cronbach's α = 0.63–0.95; split-half reliability was 0.82, dimensions were 0.68–0.95. Conclusion SpNQ-Ch-27 is applicable for Chinese cancer patients with better validity and higher internal consistency, and it can be used as a tool to assess the spiritual needs of cancer patients.