Psychometric properties of the Menopause Specific Quality of Life questionnaire among Thai women with a history of breast cancer.
Warunee Phligbua, Ellen M Lovie Smith, Debra L Barton
PMID 30322513WHAT IT FOUND
In 290 Thai breast cancer survivors with hot flashes, the Thai MENQOL gave consistent symptom bother scores, but it was checked once and most items had low scores, so uncommon symptoms may be missed.
Key findings
01In 290 participants, the Thai MENQOL had an overall internal consistency score of 0.85, and the four domain internal consistency scores were 0.73, 0.78, 0.81, and 0.83.
02The overall content validity index was 0.94, and the vasomotor subscale correlated with self-reported hot flash frequency at r=0.50 and severity at r=0.54.
03Factor analysis retained four factors, but 28 of 29 items showed floor effects, and item 21, increased facial hair, was removed after a loading of 0.20.
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What it does not show
The study used convenience sampling from one university hospital in Bangkok, so it may not represent Thai breast cancer survivors in other settings. All participants had to be experiencing hot flashes, so the results do not show how the questionnaire performs in breast cancer survivors without hot flashes. Data were collected one time only, so the study cannot assess whether scores stay stable or change over time. 28 of 29 items showed floor effects, so the measure may miss symptoms that were uncommon in this sample. Women with a major depressive episode, other documented psychiatric illness, or acutely deteriorating physical function were excluded, so the findings do not apply to all survivors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use this paper to conclude that the Thai MENQOL can track menopausal symptoms over time or capture all symptoms in Thai breast cancer survivors. The researchers collected data once, recruited available women from one hospital who had hot flashes, and 28 of 29 items showed floor effects.