Development and Validation of the Cancer Fatigue Scale: A Methodological Study

Abstract

Cancer fatigue (CF) is a major issue facing cancer patients that can negatively impact their quality of life. This study describes the development and validation of the Cancer Fatigue (CF) scale for the assessment of fatigue in cancer patients. A total of 202 cancer patients at university hospitals in South Korea were recruited and completed the questionnaires. Descriptive analysis was performed to determine the participants’ socio-demographic characteristics; the construct validity was examined using exploratory factor analysis; internal consistency reliability of the scale was estimated for the meaningful total scale and factors; and confirmatory factor analysis was performed to confirm the repetitive reproducibility of the factors. Findings indicated that the CF scale had good psychometric properties. 67.89% of the variance was explained by four subfactors: socio-cognitive (six items), physical (five items), psycho-affective (three items), and social-relationship networks (two items). The Cronbach’s alpha of the 16-item CF scale was 0.89 for the total scale, and the range of Cronbach’s alpha for subfactors was .75 to .89, indicating that it is valid and reliable. The 16-item CF scale is a feasible and time-efficient tool for assessing the fatigue of cancer patients in the clinical setting. Healthcare providers may use this measurement tool to explore cancer patients’ fatigue and routinely track the effect of a customized intervention on CF. This study also informs healthcare providers in other countries about the fatigue characteristics of Korean cancer patients.