The female self-advocacy in Cancer Survivorship scale is a psychometrically sound measure of self-advocacy in male cancer survivors

Abstract

Objective: To develop and psychometrically evaluate an adapted version of the Female Self-Advocacy in Cancer Survivorship (FSACS) Scale in men with a history of cancer.

Methods: This psychometric instrument development and validation study used a two-phase approach to first adapt the FSACS Scale items to reflect the experience of men with a history of cancer and then evaluate the psychometric properties of the adapted scale compared to the original FSACS Scale. The study was conducted from December 2018 through April 2022 through cancer clinics, patient registries, and national advocacy organizations. We evaluated scale reliability and validity using reliability coefficients, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and item analyses to determine a final set of scale items.

Results: Item responses from N = 171 men with a history of cancer were evaluated to determine scale validity. After removing poor-performing items based on item-level analyses, factor analyses confirmed that a 3-factor structure of both the adapted and original FSACS Scale best fit the scale. The 10 new items did not outperform the original 20-item scale and were therefore excluded from the final scale. The final 20-item scale explained 87.94% of item variance and subscale's Cronbach α varied from 0.65 to 0.86.

Conclusion: The SACS Scale can be used in research and clinical contexts to assess the propensity of men and women to get their needs, values, and priorities met in the face of a challenge.

Keywords: cancer; communication; instrument development; oncology; patient advocacy; patient participation; psychometric testing.