Psychometric Validation of the Simplified Chinese Version of FACT-Hep for Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma Based on Classical Test Theory and Generalizability Theory

Abstract

Abstract Background: Quality of life (QOL) is now concerned worldwide in cancer clinical fields, with the specific scales for hepatocellular carcinoma patients in China being seldom and no formal validation of the Chinese Version of the FACT-Hep. Objective: This study was aimed to validate the Chinese FACT-Hep based on Combinations of Classical Test Theory and Generalizability Theory. Methods: 114 in-patients with hepatocellular carcinoma were measured three times before and after treatments using the FACT-Hep. The FACT-Hep was evaluated by indicators of Cronbach α, Pearson r, intra-class correlation (ICC), and standardized response mean. The Generalizability Theory was also applied to addresses the dependability of measurements deeply by estimation of multiple sources of variance. Results: The Cronbach’s α coefficients were greater than 0.70 for all domains, and test-retest reliability coefficients were greater than 0.80 (exception of EWB 0.74) with the range of 0.81-0.96. The domains of PWB, FWB and the overall scale had significant changes after treatments with SRM ranging from 0.40 to 0.69. G-coefficients and Ф-coefficients confirmed the reliability of the scale further with exact variance components. Conclusions: The Chinese version of FACT-Hep can be used to measure QOL for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in China with good psychometric properties.