[Reliability and validity of the functional assessment of chronic illness therapy-spiritual (FACIT-Sp) Japanese version in cancer patients--a preliminary study].

The reliability and validity of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual well-being (FACIT-Sp), Japanese version, which was developed in the United States for a simple survey of QOL related to spirituality, was evaluated. The survey simultaneously covered FACIT-Sp and HADS, an anxiety and depression scale, using 64 cancer patients as the subjects of the study. In the evaluation of its intrinsic conformity, the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of the sub-scale ranged from 0.80 to 0.91 and the evaluation of validity by factor analysis indicated satisfactory factorial appropriateness. The correlation coefficients for the sub-scales were all below 0.7, indicating that each scale is independent. The correlation with HADS depression and anxiety scales was -0.54 and -0.56, respectively, showing that the emotional and spiritual scales are independent of each other. The findings suggest that The Japanese version of FACIT-Sp is associated with satisfactory reliability and validity and is an effective tool in the study of spirituality among cancer patients.