Persian Version of Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy- Breast (FACT-B) Scale: Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Psychometric Properties.

BACKGROUND The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Breast (FACT-B) scale is widely used to measure health-related quality of life in cancer patients. The aim of the present study is to validate the FACT-B in a sample of Iranian women with breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS The sample consisted of 300 women selected through non-random convenient sampling procedure from oncology hospitals and clinics in Kermanshah and Shiraz cities. They were asked to fill in the Persian versions of the FACT-B scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life EORTC QLQ30. Confirmatory factorial analysis of the methods, concurrent validity and discriminant, and Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency were applied. RESULTS Internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha was 0.63 to 0.93 for the subscales and 0.92 for the total scale. Significant correlations between FACT- B and other measures indicate that this scale had concurrent and discriminant validity. The values of fit indices were satisfactory. CONCLUSIONS The Persian version of the FACT-B scale is valid and reliable and, therefore, the scale can be used in research and clinical settings to assess health-related quality of life in Iranian patients with breast cancer.