Reference values of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being: a report from the American Cancer Society's studies of cancer survivors.

BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life measures are common in oncology research, trials, and practice. Spiritual well-being has emerged as an important aspect of health-related quality of life and the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being; The 12-item Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp-12) is the most widely used measure of spiritual well-being among those with cancer. However, there is an absence of reference values with which to facilitate the interpretation of scores in research and clinical practice. The objective of the current study was to provide FACIT-Sp-12 reference values from a representative sample of adult cancer survivors.

METHODS: As part of the American Cancer Society's Study of Cancer Survivors-II, a national cross-sectional study of cancer survivors (8864 survivors) completed questionnaires assessing demographic characteristics, clinical information, and the FACIT-Sp-12. Scores were calculated and summarized by FACIT-Sp-12 subscale and total scores across age, sex, race/ethnicity, time after treatment, and cancer type.

RESULTS: Student t tests for independent samples found that women reported significantly higher FACIT-Sp-12 scores (P<.001). Analyses of variance found significant main effects for FACIT-Sp-12 scores by age (P<.01), race/ethnicity (P<.05), and cancer type (P<.001). Post hoc comparisons revealed that older adults (those aged 60-69 years and 70-79 years) and black non-Hispanic individuals reported the highest FACIT-Sp-12 scores compared with those aged 18 to 39 years (P<.05; Cohen d [an effect size used to indicate the standardized difference between 2 means], 0.20-0.50) and white non-Hispanic individuals (P<.05; Cohen d, 0.02-0.62), respectively. All other significant main effects were small in magnitude (effect size range, 0.001-0.032).

CONCLUSIONS: These data will aid in the interpretation of the magnitude and meaning of FACIT-Sp-12 scores, and allow for comparisons of scores across studies.