Three Instruments to Assess Fatigue in Children with Cancer

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop and test three instruments to measure fatigue in children with cancer from the perspectives of the child, parents and staff. The study consisted of three phases: instrument development, content validation, and estimations of psychometric properties of the three fatigue instruments. One hundred forty-nine children between the ages of 7-12 years presently receiving chemotherapy for cancer, 147 parents and 124 staff participated in this study. The instruments demonstrated strong initial validity and reliability estimates. This study is the first to provide valid and reliable instruments to measure fatigue in children with cancer.

Reliability and Validity of Turkish Versions of the Child, Parent and Staff Cancer Fatigue Scales

“…The scales used in this sudy developed by Hockenberry et al (2003). Before they developed week forms that "The Fatigue Scale-Child for 7 to 12-Year-Olds, The Fatigue Scale: Parent Version and The Fatigue Scale: Staff Version".…”

“…These scales regards child's, parent's and staff's perception of the child's fatigue during the past week. Then they revised these scales and composed 24 hours forms that "CFS-24 hours, PFS-24 hours and SFS-24 hours" (Hockenberry et al, 2003;Hinds et al, 2007aHinds et al, : 2007b.…”

“…This scale was developed by Hockenberry et al (2003) and consists of 14 items regarding parents' perceptions of their child's fatigue intensity on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Intensity ratings range from 14 (no fatigue) to 70 (high fatigue), and completion times ranged from 6-8 minutes (Hockenberry et al, 2003). Validity and reliability of the instrument in Turkish have already been performed by Ekti and Conk (2008).…”

“…The SFS-24 hours was the same with The Fatigue Scale: Staff Version. Cronbach's alpha of the SFS-24 hours ranged from 0.86 to 0.95 (Hockenberry et al, 2003).…”

“…It is therefore concluded that both subjective and objective evaluation would provide the most precise data in the assessment of fatigue as a perception based symptom in children and adolescents. An analysis of the pediatric oncology literature illustrated that the cancer related fatigue has been evaluated not only by children with cancer but also by their parents and staffs (Hockenberry et al, 1998(Hockenberry et al, : 2003Hinds et al, 1999b;Hinds & Hockenberry-Eaton 2001;Braud et al, 2003;Gibson et al, 2005Gibson et al, : 2006Ekti and Conk, 2008;Yeh et al, 2008;Perdikaris et al, 2009). Children and their parents may be adversely influenced when the symptoms can't be managed effectively during the long and painstaking cancer treatment which may lead to disintegrity and dysfunctionality in the family, the deterioriation of the quality of life, loss of energy, and increasing care burden and despair (Woodgate and Degner, 2004).…”