Chinese version of fear of cancer recurrence questionnaire for cancer patients: a preliminary study

Objective To translate the English version of the Fear of Cancer Recurrence Questionnaire(FCRQ)into Chinese and to test its validity and reliability among Chinese cancer patients. Methods After we achieved a draft Chinese version, we recruited 571 cancer patients (52 males and 519 females, mean age: 47.50±11.43 years, range from 21 to 88 years) from Southern Medical University Nanfang Hospital, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital and Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center and asked them to complete the FCRQ, the Fear of Progression Questionnaire – Short Form(FoP-Q-SF), the Patient Health Questionnaire(PHQ-9) and the General Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire(GAD-7). Cronbach’s alpha was calculated and Explorary Factorial Analysis(EFA)was conducted. Fifty percent of the participants were randomly selected and re-contacted after one month to explore the test-retest reliability. Results The Cronbach’s alpha of the Chinese FCRQ scale was 0.86, Spearman Brown coefficient was 0.89, and the test-retest coefficient was 0.90. EFA revealed that the scale was a single factor instrument, and it explained up to 65.91% of the total variance. The r value between scale item and total score ranged from 0.575 to 0.876, and their loadings showed satisfactory outcomes (ranged from 0.787 to 0.894)except for item 6(loading=0.577). The FCRQ showed significant correlation with FoP-Q-SF, PHQ9 and GAD7 scales(r values ranged from 0.524-0.758). Conclusion The Chinese version FCRQ is reliable and could be utilized in the field of cancer research. Key words: Neoplasm; Scale; Reliability; Validity; Fear of recurrence