scholarly journals Evaluating the measurement properties of the 26-item Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC-26) with a multicenter cohort

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Trafford Crump ◽  
Alex Peterson ◽  
Camille Charbonneau ◽  
Kevin V. Carlson ◽  
Jason M. Sutherland ◽  
...  

Introduction: We aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the 26-item Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC-26) for measuring the quality of life in patients treated for localized prostate cancer. The EPIC-26 is a patient-reported outcome instrument recommended for use with patients treated for localized prostate cancer. Methods: This study is based on data collected prospectively between September 2014 and February 2017 in Alberta, Canada. Men were treated with either radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy and administered the EPIC-26. Responses to the EPIC-26 were the primary outcome. Construct validity was measured using confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was measured using Chronbach’s alpha and item-total correlation. Ceiling and floor effects were also investigated. Results: EPIC-26 response data from 205 participants (prostatectomy =138; radiation=60; both=7) were used in this analysis. The EPIC-26 was administered an average of 33.8 weeks after treatment. The confirmatory factor analysis model did not meet the threshold for adequate fit. Several items had near-zero factor loadings and were non-significant. Four out of the EPIC- 26’s five domains met the acceptable reliability threshold based on Cronbach’s alpha. Ceiling effects were observed in four out of five domains. Conclusions: The EPIC-26 demonstrated poor construct validity, adequate reliability, and large ceiling effects. Several issues were observed, suggesting that the instrument’s five domains were not well-defined by their respective items. The original EPIC’s conceptual framework should be reviewed and the shortened instrument revised to improve its performance for measuring post-treatment quality of life.

Author(s):  
Sana Fayyaz ◽  
Fatima Khurram Bukhari ◽  
Samar Fahd ◽  
Rab Nawaz Lodhi

Pakistan ranks third in the list of the most hazardous countries for woman's survival. In this study, by using the quantitative approach, the scale adaptation process was conducted in three phases as integration of instruments, generation of items, and generalization of expert reviews. Back-to-Back translation on 40 women was done to determine the understanding of the Urdu language of personal empowerment scale. Sequentially, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed on the data collected from 360 respondents for the Construct Validity Method (CVM) on personal empowerment Scale-Urdu Version. The results confirmed the validity of the scale. Cross-language validity was also determined. The empirical findings also indicated that women's personal empowerment plays a significant role in improving their quality of life. Theorists and practitioners need to pay more attention to the generalization of the personal empower scale.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Rosén ◽  
Gerd Ahlström ◽  
Annika Lexén

Abstract Background The worries of next of kin about their older loved ones in nursing homes can be extensive and can adversely affect their subjective experiences of their own physical, mental and social well-being. It is thus of utmost importance to measure the quality of life of next of kin in a valid and reliable way. Methods The design is a cross-sectional study with psychometric evaluation based on classical test theory in preparation for a planned educational intervention study on palliative care. An abbreviated version of the World Health Organization’s quality-of-life self-assessment instrument WHOQOL, the Swedish WHOQOL-BREF, was completed by 254 next of kin of older persons in 30 nursing homes. Data quality was assessed via the mean, median, item response, missing values, and floor and ceiling effects. Reliability was estimated using Cronbach’s alpha and corrected item-total correlations. Construct validity was estimated by Spearman’s rank correlation, and model fit was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. Results The rate of missing data was low (less than 2%). Ceiling effects ranged from 11 to 43% and were above 20% for 21 of 24 items. The corrected item-total correlations varied between 0.35 and 0.68 and were thus well above the lower limit of 0.30. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.83, indicating satisfactory internal consistency. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated a fair to close model fit (comparative fit index 0.93, root mean squared error of approximation 0.06). Conclusions The findings suggest that the WHOQOL-BREF may constitute a reliable and valid measure of quality of life for use among next of kin to older persons in nursing homes. When interpreting the results, it is important to assess the ceiling effect, as it may restrict the ability of the WHOQOL-BREF to detect true positive changes in quality of life over time. Trial registration NCT02708498.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1789-1795 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana-Belén Meseguer-Henarejos ◽  
Juan-José Gascón-Cánovas ◽  
José-Antonio López-Pina

2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmet Ekici ◽  
Mark Peterson

This study focuses on how relationships among constructs representing (1) consumer trust in market-related institutions (CTMRI), (2) distrust for individuals (DFI), and (3) subjective quality of life (QOL) differ across groups separated by the poverty line in a developing country (Turkey). A comparison of models across the two groups using multisample confirmatory factor analysis indicates that there is a correlation only between CTMRI and QOL for consumers below the poverty line (r = .43); there are no correlations between any of the three constructs for consumers above the poverty line. Accordingly, there is a unique relationship between QOL and CTMRI among financially constrained consumers in a developing country. Below the poverty line, consumers with lower trust in market-related institutions tend to report lower QOL, while those with higher trust in market-related institutions tend to report higher QOL.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarida Goes ◽  
Manuel Lopes ◽  
João Marôco ◽  
Henrique Oliveira ◽  
César Fonseca

Abstract Background The goal of this article was to research the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-BREF(PT) instrument in a sample of elderly citizens residing in a rural area in their own homes or at family members’ or friends’ homes and to compare the results: (i) to those reported by the team of Portuguese researchers that undertaken the instrument's translation/validation to the Portuguese language and (ii) to those reported internationally by the World Health Organization Quality of Life group. An overall quality of life scoring (QOL24—all facets) is also proposed in this article as novelty. The correlation level between QOL24 and the instrument’s general facet was also investigated. Methods This was a cross-sectional study with a sample of 351 elderly citizens (46.4% males and 53.6% females) randomly selected from the official dataset of the Local Health Unit of Baixo Alentejo. All the data were collected by health professionals at the participants’ homes following the structured interview methodology and using the WHOQOL-BREF(PT) instrument. Three different structural equation models were developed: (i) a first-order confirmatory factor analysis, to assess the instrument’s psychometric properties; (ii) a hierarchical second-order confirmatory factor analysis model, to allow determining the QOL24 scoring; and (iii) a more generic structural equation model, to investigate the correlation level between QOL24 and the instrument’s general facet. Results The WHOQOL-BREF(PT) showed an “almost very good” goodness of fit (comparative fit index of 0.949 and Tucker-Lewis index of 0.943), an adequate internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha: from 0.64 to 0.90; composite reliability: from 0.59 to 0.88) and tolerable convergent validity (average variance extracted: from 0.374 to 0.614). However, discriminant validity was not reached because strong correlations between the first-order factors (four QOL domains) were obtained, together with low values of the average variance extracted. The scoring of QOL domains and QOL24, determined as weighted averages (proposed in this article as novelty) were significantly different than those determined as unweighted averages. The standardized correlation coefficient between QOL24 and the instrument’s general facet was of 0.89 (statistically highly significant). Conclusions The WHOQOL-BREF(PT) is a psychometrically sound instrument to assess the QOL of the considered population sample. However, the QOL domains were found strongly intertwined. More studies are necessary to validate the weighted average scoring strategy of QOL domains and QOL24. Concurrent validity between QOL24 and the instrument’s general facet was considered as “strong”.


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