Shahpar Haghighat, Zahra Omidi, Vahid Farajivafa, Maryam Ansari, Aida Bagheri, Akram Sajadian, Shiva Moghadam, Hossein Foudazi, Farid Zayeri,
Volume 17, Issue 4 (1-2025)
Introduction: The EORTC QLQ-BR45 and QLQ-BR42 questionnaires have been developed to measure the quality of life in breast cancer patients, with 22 and 19 additional items, respectively, compared to the QLQ-BR23 questionnaire. The current project had the objective of evaluating the construct validity of the Persian translation of the QLQ-BR45 and QLQ-BR42 questionnaires.
Methods: After confirming the Persian translation of the EORT QLQ-BR45 questionnaire, 480 samples were enrolled in the study for its psychometric evaluation. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the performance of the item and scale of the QLQ-BR45 and QLQ-BR42 questionnaires' total scores and their subscales. Due to the lack of statistical acceptance of the calculated indices, the construct validity of the 23 and 22 questions of QLQ-BR45 was assessed separately to suggest a more appropriate scoring system for these questionnaires.
Results: In the confirmatory factor analysis of the EORTC QLQ-BR45 tool, the indices RMSEA, NFI, NNFI, and CFI were 0.099, 0.516, 0.638, and 0.676, respectively. The QLQ-BR42 factor analysis showed that the indices were 0.111, 0.742, 0.6, and 0.646, respectively. The factor analysis results for the QLQ-BR23 tool showed NFI, NNFI, CFI, and RMSEA values of 0.830, 0.886, 0.909, and 0.061, respectively. In 22 additional items of the QLQ-BR45, these indexes were 0.853, 0.917, 0.913, and 0.07, respectively, all of which indicate acceptable model fit.
Conclusion: As per the current study, the 45 items in the EORTC QLQ-BR45 tool are not a good fit in the combined factor model. Instead of integrating the two sections mentioned, it is suggested that the new 22-item tool be used as an instrument to assess the quality of life in breast cancer patients.
