Cancer Symptom Clusters: A Validation Study

Cancer patients often experience multiple symptoms concurrently, a phenomenon called symptom clustering. Different symptom clusters have been identified by various symptom assessment tools, as well as by different research methods, but no study has reported whether these identified symptom clusters can be replicated in a new sample. The severity of nine symptoms in 321 cancer patients was assessed using a Taiwanese version of the M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory. The fit between these data and a model with three symptom factors (sickness, gastrointestinal, and emotional) was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. Most fitness indices demonstrated a satisfactory fit between the data and a prespecified three-factor model except one; the root mean square error of approximation was