Chinese translation of a measure of symptom burden, functional limitations, lifestyle, and health care-seeking skills in breast cancer survivors: the Cancer Survivor Profile.

PURPOSE: To produce a culturally sensitive Chinese translation of the original version of the Cancer Survivor Profile for breast cancer (CSPro-BC) survivors, which identifies problems in breast cancer patients post-primary treatment for breast cancer.

METHODS: Four hundred forty-four female Chinese patients following primary treatment for breast cancer completed a Chinese translation of the CSPro-BC. Participants were randomly divided into two equal groups (n = 222). The two samples were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and divergent and convergent validities were also determined.

RESULTS: The majority of participants were diagnosed with stage II or III breast cancer (76.1%), with a median of 16 months post-primary treatment, between the ages of 40-59, educated at the junior high school level or below (86.2%), married with children (93.7%), and unemployed (70.7%). Factor analysis generated five factors: symptom burden, function, health behavior, financial strain, and health care-seeking skills. Scales within each domain were similar to the original CSPro-BC. The measurement models for symptom burden (CFI = 0.949, RMSEA = 0.055), function (CFI = 0.925, RMSEA = 0.080), health behavior (CFI = 0.999, RMSEA = 0.015), financial strain (CFI = 0.999, RMSEA = 0.014), and health care-seeking skills (CFI = 0.964, RMSEA = 0.059) were all consistent with the original measure. Test-retest reliability was between 0.80 and 0.92. Internal consistency ranged from 0.65 to 0.95. Discriminant and concurrent validities were consistent to the original.

CONCLUSIONS: The translation resulted in a valid and reliable self-assessment tool for identifying common non-medical problems in breast cancer patients' post-cancer treatment.

IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: A culturally sensitive measure of symptoms, functional limitations, lifestyle, and health care-seeking skills in Chinese-speaking breast cancer survivors is available for further testing.