The Development of Quality of Life Questionnaire for Indonesian Breast Cancer Patients: INA-BCHRQoL

Abstract

Introduction: The breast cancer related incidence and mortality rate in Indonesia are included in the top 10 and top 5 highest in the world. A country-specific Health Related Quality of Life measurement tool is required to help clinician observe and improve the management of the disease. Methods: We developed the questionnaire, namely Indonesian Breast Cancer Health Related Quality of Life (INA-BCHRQoL) by incorporating not only the generic variables such as physical, psychological, and social; but also spiritual variable which is suitable for Indonesian population. The questionnaire was validated to the same population using the value of corrected item-total correlation and the value of Cronbach Alpha. Results: Fourty three questions were considerably valid and reliable on evaluating the HRQoL of early state of breast cancer patients in Indonesia as the value of Cronbach Alpha for physical, cognitive, social and spiritual domain were higher than 0.8 and the corrected item-total correlation were also higher than 0.3. Each domain of the questionnaire was not influenced by the treatment options. Twenty four early stage breast cancer (10 FAC based chemotherapy and 14 Taxan based chemotherapy) were enrolled in the main study and the score of HRQOL obtained from INA-BCHRQoL were considerably high. Conclussion: The INA-BCHRQoL questionnaire can be implemented as a valid and reliable tool to assess quality of life in early stage breast cancer patients in Indonesia.

Keywords: Breast cancer; QoL; INA-BCHRQoL; Indonesia.