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. 2018 Jan 4;18(1):19.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-017-3865-5.

Development of the body image self-rating questionnaire for breast cancer (BISQ-BC) for Chinese mainland patients

Kaina Zhou  1 , Xiaole He  1 , Lanting Huo  1 , Jinghua An  1 , Minjie Li  1 , Wen Wang  1 , Xiaomei Li  2
Affiliations

Development of the body image self-rating questionnaire for breast cancer (BISQ-BC) for Chinese mainland patients

Kaina Zhou et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Body image is a complex post-treatment concern among female patients with breast cancer, and various tools have been developed and applied to measure this multifaceted issue. However, these available tools were developed in other countries and only a few have been modified into Chinese versions. Furthermore, body-image evaluation instruments that are specific to Chinese mainland female patients with breast cancer have not been devised yet. Therefore, we developed the Body Image Self-rating Questionnaire for Breast Cancer for Chinese mainland female patients with breast cancer.

Methods: We performed two rounds of the Delphi technique and a cross-sectional pilot survey. Items were selected using a Likert scale (1-5) to determine ratings of importance (i.e., the significance of the item from experts' perspective; coefficients of variation ≤0.25), internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's α ≥ 0.70), convergent validity (hypothesized item-subscale correlations ≥0.40), and discriminant validity (stronger correlations of the item with the hypothesized subscale than for other subscales). All decisions on items were made based on statistical analysis results, experts' recommendations, and in-depth discussion among researchers.

Results: Twenty-five eligible experts completed the two Delphi rounds (mean age: 42.20 ± 8.90 years). Over half the experts were professors (56%, n = 14) or worked as clinical staff (68%, n = 17). Twenty (mean age = 49.55 ± 10.01 years) and 50 patients (mean age = 48.44 ± 9.98 years) completed the first- and second-round survey, respectively. Over half the patients had a tertiary education level, were married, and were employed. Regarding the revised questionnaire (comprising 33 items across seven subscales), the expert panelists' ratings of each item met the criteria (Kendall's W = 0.238, p < .001). Five subscales had a Cronbach's α value over 0.60 (range: 0.62-0.69) and two subscales were over 0.80 (range: 0.84-0.88). All items satisfied the criteria for convergent and discriminant validity.

Conclusions: The findings of this study provide evidence of a suitable tool for body image evaluation among Chinese mainland female patients with breast cancer. Studies with larger sample sizes should be conducted to validate this questionnaire in this patient population.

Keywords: Body image; Breast cancer; China; Mixed methods.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study received ethical approval from the Biomedical Ethics Committee of Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Centre (No. 2015–170). Written informed consent was obtained from each recruited patient before the questionnaire survey.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart of items selection of the Body Image Self-rating Questionnaire for Breast Cancer (BISQ-BC)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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