Lai Jin-Shei, Cella David, Peterman Amy, Barocas Joshua, Goldman Stewart
Center on Outcomes, Research and Education (CORE), Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Evanston, Illinois 60201, USA.
Cancer. 2005 Oct 1;104(7):1531-9. doi: 10.1002/cncr.21315.
Anorexia is a common symptom in patients with cancer, which can lead to poor tolerance of treatment and can contribute to cachexia in extreme cases. Children with advanced-stage cancer are especially vulnerable to malnutrition resulting from anorexia and cachexia. Currently, there are no instruments that measure common concerns specifically associated with anorexia and cachexia in children with cancer. The purpose of the current article was to test the psychometric properties of a newly developed pediatric Functional Assessment of Anorexia and Cachexia Therapy (peds-FAACT) for children with cancer.
Ninety-six patients (ages 7-17 yrs) receiving cancer treatment and their parents were asked to complete the 12-item peds-FAACT. The authors implemented both classical test theory and item response theory to evaluate the agreement between parents and patients, internal consistency and unidimensionality of the scale, and stability of items across subgroups.
As a result, a patient-reported six-item scale was recommended as the core measure for all pediatric patients with cancer and four additional peripheral items were recommended for adolescent patients.
The peds-FAACT demonstrated good psychometric properties, differentiated patients with different functional performance status, and was determined to be a useful tool for future clinical trials.
厌食是癌症患者的常见症状，可导致治疗耐受性差，在极端情况下可导致恶病质。晚期癌症患儿尤其容易因厌食和恶病质而出现营养不良。目前，尚无专门用于测量癌症患儿与厌食和恶病质相关常见问题的工具。本文的目的是测试一种新开发的癌症患儿厌食和恶病质治疗功能评估量表（peds-FAACT）的心理测量特性。
96名接受癌症治疗的患者（年龄7 - 17岁）及其父母被要求完成12项的peds-FAACT。作者采用经典测试理论和项目反应理论来评估父母与患者之间的一致性、量表的内部一致性和单维度性，以及各亚组项目的稳定性。
因此，推荐一个患者报告的六项量表作为所有癌症患儿的核心测量指标，并为青少年患者推荐另外四项外围指标。
peds-FAACT表现出良好的心理测量特性，能够区分不同功能表现状态的患者，并被确定为未来临床试验的有用工具。
