Development of an Anemia Assessment Tool for Patients Undergoing Cancer Chemotherapy

Abstract

　The present study aimed to develop a simple tool to accurately assess anemic symptoms related to cancer chemotherapy. We enrolled 389 patients who were undergoing cancer chemotherapy across 6 hospitals. Patients were administered an 11-item anemia assessment tool and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy- Anemia (FACT-Anemia) Scale. Factor analysis was performed based on the data obtained, and three factors out of 10 of 11 items (except for“ hand tip and feet tip are cold”) were selected. Assessment of construct validity revealed that all but 2 items had correlation coefficients ranging from 0.10 to 0.59. Criterion-related validity with FACT-Anemia was assessed for the overall scores of the anemia assessment tool and sub-scale scores of FACT-Anemia, demonstrating a correlation ranging from 0.77 to 0.80. Assessment of internal consistency demonstrated that Pearson’s correlation coefficients ranged from 0.48 to 0.94. We further examined the reproducibility of the measurements in 113 of 389 patients by administering the anemia assessment tool 2-3 weeks after the initial assessment. The result indicated moderate reproducibility, with Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient ranging from 0.43 to 0.77 and κ coefficient ranging from 0.20 to 0.44 for each item in the tool. In conclusion, our findings demonstrated the reliability and validity of the anemia assessment tool. Given that there are only 10 items in our finished anemia assessment tool, it may be appropriate as a self-monitoring tool for patients and in normal clinical settings.