Psychometric validation of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer–Quality of Life Questionnaire Sexual Health (EORTC QLQ-SH22)

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2021.06.003
• Publication Date: 2021-07-20T23:44:35Z
• Authors: Elfriede Greimel; Eva Nagele; Anne Lanceley; Anne S. Obergugge...; Andy Nordin; Karin Kuljanic; Juan I. Arraras; Chie Wei-Chu; Pernille T. Jensen; Krzysztof A. Toma...; Carien L. Creutzberg; Razvan Galalae; Hilde Toelen; Kristin Zimmermann; Vesna Bjelic-Radisic; Anna Costantini; Thierry Almont; Samantha Serpentini; Ligita Paskeviciu...; Ingvild Vistad; Claudia Schmalz
• Keywords: Quality of life; Adult; Male; Psychometrics; Sexual health; Cross-cultural validation; psychometric properties; Young Adult; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Cancer Survivors; Neoplasms; Surveys and Questionnaires; cancer; Humans; Questionnaire development; Cancer; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Cancer ; Cross-cultural validation ; EORTC ; Psychometric properties ; Quality of life ; Questionnaire development ; Sexual health; questionnaire development; Middle Aged; 3. Good health; cross-cultural validation; Psychometric properties; EORTC; quality of life; Quality of Life; Female; Sexual Health

The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group developed a questionnaire to assess sexual health in patients with cancer and cancer survivors. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the questionnaire.The 22-item EORTC sexual health questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-SH22) was administered with the EORTC QLQ-C30 to 444 patients with cancer. The hypothesised scale structure, reliability and validity were evaluated through standardised psychometric procedures.The cross-cultural field study showed that the majority of patients (94.7%) were able to complete the QLQ-SH22 in less than 20 min; 89% of the study participants did not need any help to fill in the questionnaire. Multi-item multi-trait scaling analysis confirmed the hypothesised scale structure with two multi-item scales (sexual satisfaction, sexual pain) and 11 single items (including five conditional items and four gender-specific items). The internal consistency yielded acceptable Cronbach's alpha coefficients (.90 for the sexual satisfaction scale, .80 for the sexual pain scale). The test-retest correlations (Pearson's r) ranged from .70 to .93 except for the scale communication with professionals (.67) and male body image (.69). The QLQ-SH22 discriminates well between subgroups of patients differing in terms of their performance and treatment status.The study supports the reliability, the content and construct validity of the QLQ-SH22. The newly developed questionnaire is clinically applicable to assess sexual health of patients with cancer at different treatment stages and during survivorship for clinical trials and for clinical practice.