Korean translation and validity of FACT-BMT version 4 and the quality of life in allogeneic bone marrow transplantation patients

Abstract

We undertook to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplantation (FACT-BMT) scale Version 4, an assessment tool for BMT patients' quality of life (QoL). The translation procedure followed the standard Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) translation methodology. At baseline, prior to BMT, 70 allogeneic BMT patients were administered the FACT-BMT scale version 4, as well as the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status Rating (ECOG-PSR), Functional Living Index-Cancer (FLIC), and the Shortened Forms of the Profile of Mood States (BPOMS). Forty seven of these patients were also administered these questionnaires 3 months after BMT, thirty eight patients did 6 months after BMT, and finally 35 patients did 1 year after their BMT. Our results indicated that the FACT-BMT scale Version 4 gave convergent and divergent validity, and had a high internal consistency with its Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from 0.64 (EWB at pre-BMT) to 0.94 (the FACT-BMT total). These data support that Korean FACT-BMT is a reliable and valid assessment for measuring the QoL of BMT patients. In the future study, we have to increase the number of cases with larger sample of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation patients, and the duration of long term follow-up should be at least more than 1 year.