Breast cancer surgery QOL scale : development, validity, and reliability

The SF-36 scale is widely used to evaluate the quality of life among breast cancer patients, but provides an inadequate reflection of their quality of life; therefore, we aimed to set up a new scale, a breast cancer surgery quality of life (BCSQOL) scale and to assess its reliability and validity. The analysis review showed that 75% to 91% of surgically treated patients (59/79) found that the questionnaire items were an accurate reflection of their feelings and were clear. The validity coefficient analysis showed a highly correlated extent of commonality (alpha = 0.778) between BCSQOL and SF-36 and a significant strength of relationship (rho = 0.785). Strong to moderate correlation reliability coefficient analysis (alpha = 0.779--0.351) was observed for the association among all items of the scale. BCSQOL scale may help health care providers to better understand the health status of breast cancer subjects, rendering them more equipped to improve their quality of life