Validation of the simplified Chinese version of the FACT-B for measuring quality of life for patients with breast cancer.

The simplified Chinese version of the FACT-B was evaluated by QOL data measured from 376 patients with breast cancer. The results showed that test-retest reliability for five domains: physical well-being, social/family well-being, emotional well-being, functional well-being, additional concerns, and the overall scales and trial outcome index were 0.82, 0.85, 0.91, 0.86, 0.90, 0.84 and 0.91, 0.89 respectively. The internal consistency alpha for the five domains mentioned above were 0.85, 0.82, 0.84, 0.84 and 0.59 respectively. Correlation analysis, factor analysis and structural equation model showed good construct validity. Criterion-related validity was also confirmed using QLICP-BR as a criterion. The instrument can find the change of QOL for cancer patients after treatment. It's concluded that the simplified Chinese version of FACT-B can be used to measure QOL for Chinese patients with breast cancer with good validity, reliability and responsiveness.