Internal Consistency of the Traditional Chinese Character Version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Head and Neck (FACT-H&N)

Background: This study investigated the internal consistency of the FunctionalAssessment of Cancer Therapy - Head and Neck (FACT-H&N) translatedversion in traditional Chinese characters (TChi). The FACT-H&N quality oflife instrument is composed of the FACT-General (FACT-G) assessing fourprimary areas of well-being (physical, social/family, emotional, and functional)and 11 additional items specific to H&N cancer patients.Methods: Two hundred and three patients with H&N cancer were recruited at a medicalcenter in northwestern Taiwan. All completed the TChi FACT-H&Nalong with demographic and clinical questionnaires written in traditionalChinese characters. Several psychometric properties of the TChi FACT-H&Nwere examined, including Cronbach’s alpha coefficients.Results: Most of the 203 enrolled patients were men (78%). The median age was 52.5years (range 23-81 years) and the median number of years of education was9. All patients had a Karnofsky score of 70 or higher. The results showed thatthe TChi FACT-H&N scales demonstrated acceptable internal consistency.Translation of the physical and functional concepts was most straightforward.Translation of emotional items, however, posed some difficulties. Thesocial/ family well-being subscale was problematic, as expected, based uponobservations of cultural differences in social values and functioning. We alsonoted that concerns about hearing were different between patients withnasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and those with other H&N cancers.Conclusion: The TChi FACT-H&N is reliable. Items related to problems with hearingshould be added to better evaluate the quality of life in patients with NPC.