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. 2018 Dec 6;18(1):1222.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-018-5143-6.

A contribution to the validation of the Italian version of the Body Image Scale (BIS)

Maria Antonietta Annunziata  1 , Barbara Muzzatti  2 , Francesca Bomben  2 , Cristiana Flaiban  2 , Marika Piccinin  2 , Valentina Solfrini  2
Affiliations

A contribution to the validation of the Italian version of the Body Image Scale (BIS)

Maria Antonietta Annunziata et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: The Body Image Scale (BIS) is a 10-item mono-factorial scale, designed to capture distress and symptoms related to body image in cancer patients. This paper describes the conversion and psychometric evaluation of an Italian BIS version.

Methods: After the back-translation procedure, the Italian version of the BIS, together with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Short Form 36 Health Survey Questionnaire, have been administered to a sample of Italian adult females, surgically treated for a breast cancer at least one year before.

Results: Data on 109 participants were analyzed. The response rate was 92.5%. Response prevalence was adequate for 9 out of 10 items. Principal component analysis showed a one-factor structure. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha =0.924) was good. The BIS correlated with the theoretically pertinent subscales of the other administered tools and was able to discriminate participants (discriminant validity) according to the undertaken surgical treatment (p = 0.031).

Conclusions: This study supports the valid and reliable use also of the Italian version of the BIS.

Keywords: Body image; Body image scale; Oncology; Psychometrics; Validation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The Ethics Committee of the IRCCS Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano gave its clearance to the present study (CRO-2009-40).

Signed informed consent was obtained by each participant before enrollment.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Publisher’s Note

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

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