Development and validation of a psychosocial screening instrument for cancer

BACKGROUND We are reporting on the development of a psychosocial screening tool for cancer patients. The tool was to be brief, at a relatively low reading level, capture psychological variables relevant to distress and health-related quality-of-life in cancer patients, possess good reliability and validity, and be free of copyright protection. METHOD Item derivation is described, data on reliability and validity as well as norms are reported for three samples of cancer patients (n = 1057; n = 570, n = 101). RESULTS The resulting 21-item psychological screen for cancer (PSCAN) assesses perceived social support, desired social support, health-related quality-of-life, anxiety and depression. It has good psychometrics including high internal consistency (alpha averaging .83, and acceptable test-retest stability over 2 months (averaging r = .64). Validity has been established for content, construct and concurrent validity. CONCLUSION PSCAN is considered ready for use as a screening tool and also for following changes in patient distress throughout the cancer care trajectory. It is freely available to all interested non-profit users.