Formulation,Reliability and Validity Assessment of Questionnaire about the Needs of Dependents of Advanced Cancer Patients

Objective To explore the formulation of the questionnaire about the needs of the dependents of advanced cancer patients,and the assessment of the reliability and validity of it.Methods The questionnaire was formulated by means of literature review,clinical observation,expert consulting and pre-survey and then was applied on a small sample scale to 90 cases for optimization and revision through Exploratory Factor Analysis.From July to December,2007,the questionnaire was applied on a large sample scale to 649 dependents of the advanced cancer patients from 15hospitals in Shanghai for reliability and validity assessment.Results The questionnaire contained 7 aspects including the dependent'shealth condition,medical behavior,knowledge aobut the disease,funeral support,terminal care,pyschological support for the cancer patient,and the control of the disease,36 items in all.The general Cronbach's coefficient of this questionnaire was 0.902,and those of the various aspects ranged from 0.785 to 0.893,proving the reliability of the questionnaire.The analysis of the content validity showed there was significant correlation between the various items and the overall score(P0.01).The seven factors in the factor analysis explained 66.148% of the total variance,with the loading of the various items being greater than 0.5 after varimax orthogonal rotation.There existed strong correlation between the various aspects,and between the various aspects and the overall score,proving the structrual validity of the questionnaire.Conclusion The Questionnaire formulated in this studyhashigh reliability and validity,and can be used for survey on the needs of the dependents of advanced cancer patients.