Developing, Implementing, and Validating a Social Toxicity Assessment Tool of Cancer

Abstract

Purpose: The social impact of cancer on patients and their family is well known. Yet, unlike with physical and financial toxicities, no validated tools are available to measure this impact. This study aimed at developing, validating, and implementing a novel social toxicity assessment tool for patients with cancer diagnosis (STAT-C).

Methods: Questions were generated through multiple steps including focus groups of patients, their families, and oncology care professionals. These steps along with relevant literature resulted in the development of an initial 20-item questionnaire. Content validity and relevance of the tool were assessed using Content Validity Index for individual items and Content Validity Index for the entire scale. Following expert examination, the constructed STAT-C tool consisted of 14 items grouped into three domains-social relations, social activities, and economic impact. Based on the total possible score for the survey in 150 patients for all the items, three levels of a socioeconomic toxicity were determined-severe social toxicity, mild social toxicity, and no social toxicity.

Results: The 14 items were marked as relevant, and the Content Validity Index for individual items ranged between 0.80 and 1.00. An overall average Content Validity Index for the entire scale of 0.87 showed high content validity of the constructed tool. Exploratory factor analysis revealed retention of 13 items of the constructed STAT-C Tool, which loaded across three factors that mapped groupings into measures of social relations, social activities, and economic impact domains.

Conclusion: Our study revealed that STAT-C is a valid, reliable tool, and well captures and measures unique and pertinent social toxicity constructs for Arabic-speaking patients. The tool should enable oncology professionals to deliver better patient-centered care as a component of a comprehensive approach.