Research has demonstrated that cancer patients report problems with cognitive functioning related to their cancer and their cancer treatments. Cognitive complaints refer to subjective reports of problems such as decreased memory, attention, concentration, and language skills. These problems with cognitive functioning can interfere with a person’s quality of life. The current measures of cognitive complaints have poor or unknown psychometric properties. Therefore, the present study sought to examine the psychometric properties of a newly developed measure of cognitive complaints for cancer patients, the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Cognitive Scale (FACT-Cog). Eighty-two patients were administered a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests assessing memory, executive functioning, motor, and attention, as well as a battery of psychosocial measures six months or twelve months after receiving a bone marrow transplant. Results indicated that the internal consistency reliability of the FACT-Cog was high. Concurrent validity was evidenced by the significant relationship of the FACT-Cog to another measure of cognitive complaints. Convergent validity is evidenced by the significant relationship of the FACT-Cog to measures of depression, fatigue, anxiety, mental well-being, and physical well-being. Divergent validity was evidenced by the lack of significant relationship of the FACT-Cog to a measure of extroversion. In contrast, there was limited support for the criterion validity of the FACT-Cog as evidenced by the limited significant relationships with neuropsychological test scores. The FACT-Cog did not demonstrate superior psychometric properties to an existing measure of cognitive complaints (EORTC-CF). Future research should investigate the relationship of cognitive complaints to cognitive performance utilizing longitudinal designs, other clinical populations, and neuropsychological tests that require sustained effort.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USF/oai:scholarcommons.usf.edu:etd-2091 |
| Date | 03 December 2004 |
| Creators | Jacobs, Sheri R |
| Publisher | Scholar Commons |
| Source Sets | University of South Flordia |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | default |
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