The initial development of an item bank to assess and screen for psychological distress in cancer patients

Psychological distress is a common problem among cancer patients. Despite the large number of instruments that have been developed to assess distress, their utility remains disappointing. This study aimed to use Rasch models to develop an item-bank which would provide the basis for better means of assessing psychological distress in cancer patients.An item bank was developed from eight psychological distress questionnaires using Rasch analysis to link common items. Items from the questionnaires were added iteratively with common items as anchor points and misfitting items (infit mean square >1.3) removed, and unidimensionality assessed.A total of 4914 patients completed the questionnaires providing an initial pool of 83 items. Twenty items were removed resulting in a final pool of 63 items. Good fit was demonstrated and no additional factor structure was evident from the residuals. However, there was little overlap between item locations and person measures, since items mainly targeted higher levels of distress. The Rasch analysis allowed items to be pooled and generated a unidimensional instrument for measuring psychological distress in cancer patients. Additional items are required to more accurately assess patients across the whole continuum of psychological distress.