The Validation Study of the Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-6 Scale Among Patients With Cancer in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Hyeyeong Kim; Harin Kim; Hyuk Joo Lee; Eulah Cho; Su-Jin Koh; Oli Ahmed; Seockhoon Chung

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.811083

The Validation Study of the Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-6 Scale Among Patients With Cancer in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Front Psychiatry. 2022 Apr 14:13:811083. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.811083. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Hyeyeong Kim¹, Harin Kim², Hyuk Joo Lee³, Eulah Cho⁴, Su-Jin Koh¹, Oli Ahmed^{5

6}, Seockhoon Chung²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hematology and Oncology, Ulsan University Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
² Department of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
³ Department of Public Medical Service, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Seoul Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Chittagong, Chattogram, Bangladesh.
⁶ National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Abstract

Introduction: The study aimed to explore the psychometric properties of the Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-6 (SAVE-6) scale among patients with cancer who are in serious situations in the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: The survey included questions on the participants' demographic information, clinical history of cancer (including cancer type, stage, current treatment or diagnosis of complete remission), and scores on rating scales, including the SAVE-6 scale, Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9).

Results: The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results determined that the model fits the single factor structure of the SAVE-6 scale among patients with cancer. The multi-group CFA showed that SAVE-6 can measure the anxiety response in a similar way across multiple variables, such as sex, presence of clinical depression, being in a state of complete remission, or currently undergoing cancer treatment. The SAVE-6 scale showed good reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.819) and convergent validity with the rating scales, such as CAS [r = 0.348 (95% CI, 0.273-0.419), p < 0.001] and PHQ-9 items score [r = 0.251 (95% CI, 0.172-0.328), p < 0.001].

Conclusions: This study confirms SAVE-6 as a reliable and valid rating scale for measuring the anxiety response of patients with cancer during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; anxiety; cancer; pandemic; stress.