Measuring the Quality of Life among Head-and/or-Neck Cancer Patients with Oral Mucositis Using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General in Jordan

Abstract

Objective:Quality of life (QOL) in cancer patients can be influenced by the presence of medical conditions, such as oral mucositis (OM). There is still limited knowledge about this issue among patients in Jordan, and this could be related to the absence of research instruments testing QOL among cancer patients with OM. This study measured the QOL among cancer patients using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G), Arabic version.Methods:This was a cross-sectional study on 118 head-and/or-neck cancer patients with OM in Jordan. Data were submitted to measures of normality, reliability, and validity using exploratory factor analysis. The study also measured QOL among the study sample.Results:FACT-G demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and validity. Factor analysis indicated the presence of four factors explained by 24 items representing a valid FACT-G, Arabic version. Scores reflected low QOL compared to reported normative values in the literature. The values used to compare findings from this study were extracted from international literature; no similar values were present in published literature.Conclusions:FACT-G, Arabic version, is valid and reliable when applied to this study population. Further testing is recommended, which would include the establishment of normative values.

Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of Quality of Life Scales for Arabic-Speaking Adults: A systematic review

“…9, The majority were conducted in the Middle Eastern and North African region, including Jordan (n = 7), Saudi Arabia (n = 4), Egypt (n = 2), Morocco (n = 2), Kuwait (n = 2), Tunisia (n = 2), Lebanon (n = 2), the United Arab Emirates (UAE; n = 2), Sudan (n = 1) and Qatar (n = 1). 9,13,14,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]37,38 However, two studies were conducted in the Netherlands among samples of Moroccan Arabic-speaking subjects. 15,36 The majority of the studies (n = 21) had translated the QOL scales into modern standard Arabic suitable for use among all Arabic-speaking populations.…”

“…15,36 The majority of the studies (n = 21) had translated the QOL scales into modern standard Arabic suitable for use among all Arabic-speaking populations. 9,13,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]38 However, six had translated the scales into Arabic dialects only suitable for specific populations, including Moroccan Arabic (n = 3), Tunisian Arabic (n = 2) and Egyptian Arabic (n = 1). [14][15][16][17]36,37 All of the studies utilised quantitative research methods, with 20 crosssectional and seven longitudinal surveys.…”

“…9, None of the studies tested all nine psychometric criteria suggested by Terwee et al 11 In terms of content validity, 22 studies had a positive score. 9,[13][14][15][18][19][20][21][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]32,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] For the remaining five studies, no information was available. 16,17,22,31,33 Internal consistency was generally high, with 26 studies scoring positively.…”

“…18,19 The remaining 25 studies did not provide any information concerning this psychometric property. 9,[13][14][15][16][17][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] Construct validity was assessed in 22 studies, of which 21 received positive ratings. 9,[13][14][15][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]37,38 Only one study was rated as intermediate for this aspect.…”

“…9, In total, 14 studies reported information regarding translation and cross-cultural adaptation processes. 9,[13][14][15]17,18,[23][24][25][28][29][30]34,38 However, only two studies adopted all five steps recommended by Guillemin et al 9,12,23 A total of nine studies reported four of the steps, without providing any information regarding the re-evaluation of score weightings. 13,14,17,18,[28][29][30]34,38 One study presented a three-step technique (including translation, backtranslation and pre-testing), while another reported only the first two steps.…”