Coping Ability of Liver Cancer Patients : Development of a Questionnaire

Abstract

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to develop a means of evaluating the “coping ability” of liver cancer patients continuing to fight the disease. A 90─item draft questionnaire was developed, based on the conceptual framework of Orem’s theory, and data were collected from semi─structured interviews of 21 liver cancer patients. The face validity of the draft questionnaire was first investigated in a survey of 15 liver cancer patients, and the number of items was reduced to 46. Next, the construct validity and internal consistency of the modified questionnaire were evaluated in a survey of 92 liver cancer patients. After examining factor loadings obtained from factor analysis, we developed the final draft, which comprised 25 items classified into 4 subscales : “recovery behavior”, “feelings about support”, “expectations of medical treatment”, and “motivation and faith”. Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.89 for the entire questionnaire, and between 0.68 and 0.85 for each subscale, indicating internal consistency. Based on these findings, the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were confirmed to be acceptable. Coping ability tended to be also affected by age and the number of facilities visited, so the questionnaire will be further refined according to the results of the present study.