Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale: Construct validation in Spanish breast cancer patients

Abstract

Objective: The Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale (MiniMAC) is widely used to evaluate cancer patients' psychological responses to diagnosis and treatment. Validation studies of the scale have shown inconsistency in the obtained factor structures. The aim of this study was to explore the factor structure, using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and other psychometric properties of the MiniMAC in Spanish breast cancer patients.

Methods: A sample of 368 women with breast cancer completed the MiniMAC and the 18 items version of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-18).

Results: The original pentafactorial model and three additional models derived from the empirical research -two first-order structures with four and three factors, and a second-order bifactorial structure- were tested. The five-factor model showed the best model fit and largely replicated the original MiniMAC's subscales. Five factors had acceptable reliability and showed modest correlations with emotional distress in the expected direction.

Conclusions: The Spanish version of the MiniMAC has a satisfactory overall performance and serves as a brief, reliable and valid tool measuring cognitive appraisals and ensuing reactions to cancer.

Keywords: Assessment; Confirmatory factor analysis; Coping; Emotional distress; Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale; Psychometrics.