Cross cultural adaptation and psychometric evalutation of the cancer worry scale

Cross Cultural Adaptation and Psychometric Evalutation of The Cancer Worry ScaleObjective: The purpose of this research was to determine the psychometric properties of the The Cancer Worry Scale which was developed by Eveline M.A. Bleiker to evaluate the fear of cancer after the procedure in women who have colposcopy from the gynecology oncology policlinic. Method: Study data was collected among women who applied to the Gynecologic Oncology outpatient clinic of Akdeniz Universty Hospital and who had abnormal pap smear result, without cancer history. Researcher collected data with The Cancer Worry Scale, which is used for evaluating fear of cancer, after colposcopy procedure. The study was conducted with 200 volunteer participants between March and November 2017. Frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, factor analysis and cronbach alpha coefficient were used for analyses the data. Results: Paralell-blind translation method was used to determine the Turkish adaptation study of the scale. The compatibility level of expert opinion was found as Kendall W = 0.190 (p = 0.101). As a result of exploratory factor analysis of the scale, it was seen that whole scale was collected under one factor and the total variance explained by the factors was 53.35%. In accordance to scores obtained from the scale, CFA was applied to obtain extra evidence with regard to construct validity. Fit indexes of CFA were determined as Chi-Square Goodness of Fit 2 = 43.89 (p=0.001), 2/sd=2.44, RMSEA 0.085, NNFI 0.97, SRMR 0.048 and GFI 0.94. Overall Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient of the scale was 0.87. Conclusion: As a result; it was determined that the Turkish version of "The Cancer Worry Scale" is a valid and reliable tool for measuring cancer fears. Keywords: The Cancer Worry Scale, Cancer fear, Cancerophobia, Nursing