Development of the psycho-social discomfort scale (PsDS): investigation of psychometric properties among Japanese breast cancer survivors

Objective: To develop a new scale to assess psycho-social discomfort in breast cancer (BC) survivors in Japanese society and to investigate its psychometric properties.Method: A total of 248 Japanese BC survivors completed both the Psycho-social Discomfort Scale (PsDS) and WHO Quality of Life BREF Japanese version (WHO QoL-Jp). A principal component factor analysis (with promax rotation) was performed, and internal consistency was examined using Cronbach's alpha. Divergent and convergent validities and criterion validity were examined using the Spearman's R.Results: The factor analysis extracted three factors: ‘internalised stigma (IS)’, ‘social disclosure of BC (SD)’, and ‘psychological resources to live with BC (PR)’. The factors were moderately correlated. The scale had good internal consistency (alpha = 0.80). All sub-scales were inversely correlated with all the domains in the WHO QoL-Jp (r = ?0.09 to ?0.47). BC stage was significantly correlated with the SD sub-scale, and type of surgery was significantly correlated with the IS sub-scale.Conclusions: The PsDS has 25 items. It measures psycho-social discomfort that Japanese BC survivors experienced or were experiencing in their community. It has a simple factor structure, relatively good internal consistency, and a satisfactory divergent validity.