Reliability and validity of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual (FACIT-Sp) for Japanese patients with cancer

Abstract

The reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual (FACIT-Sp) scale were assessed. This scale was developed in the United States to assess quality of life (QOL) in relation to spirituality. Two surveys were conducted on each of 306 cancer patients. In addition to the FACIT-Sp, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was administered. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient, an evaluation of internal consistency, for the FACIT-Sp subscales ranged from 0.81 to 0.91. There were no significant differences between the patients evaluated using the FACIT-Sp subscale and the HADS subscale with regard to degree of religious feelings. The correlation coefficients between the FACIT-Sp and the HADS depression and anxiety scales indicated a moderate correlation. These findings suggest that the Japanese version of the FACIT-Sp scale is satisfactory in terms of reliability and validity and is a useful tool in the study of spirituality among Japanese cancer patients.