Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Support Care Cancer. 2024 Oct 21;32(11):737. doi: 10.1007/s00520-024-08930-4.
Individuals diagnosed with cancer experience multiple inter-related short- and long-term side effects. Chief among such symptomology is cancer-related fatigue (CRF), which, if left unmanaged, can become chronic and result in increased disability and healthcare utilization. A growing number of self-report scales have been developed to measure CRF symptoms based on various theoretical conceptualizations with the aim of promoting targeted assessment and intervention efforts. It may be, however, unwise to assume that the various measures are conceptually similar (i.e., that they assess for the same constructs). Accordingly, we aimed to characterize item content among nine self-report scales, using a Jaccard index to quantify content overlap among scales.
We characterized construct assessment among nine self-report scales recommended to assess CRF by a recent clinical practice guideline, and used a Jaccard index to quantify content overlap among scales.
Analysis of 208 items across nine rating scales resulted in 20 distinct symptoms of CRF assessed. The most common symptoms were energy level (captured in all nine scales), cognitive function, impaired task performance (in eight scales), sleepiness, and physical function (in seven scales). Mean overlap among all scales was low (Jaccard index = 0.455). Only one construct (duration of fatigue; 5.0%) was captured by a single scale, and one symptom (energy level; 5.0%) was common across all scales. The PFS, MFSI, and BFI each captured at least one symptom from each of the NCCN domains of CRF.
CRF scales are heterogeneous in the content they measure, critically impairing integration of knowledge across studies using disparate scales. Future work is urgently needed to build more integrated theoretical and/or computational models of CRF based on relevant mechanisms.
被诊断患有癌症的个体经历多种相互关联的短期和长期副作用。其中最主要的症状是癌症相关疲劳（CRF），如果不加以管理，它可能会变成慢性的，并导致残疾和医疗保健利用率增加。为了促进有针对性的评估和干预工作，已经开发出越来越多的基于各种理论概念的自我报告量表来测量 CRF 症状。然而，假设各种措施在概念上相似（即，它们评估相同的结构）可能是不明智的。因此，我们旨在使用杰卡德指数来量化量表之间的内容重叠，来描述九种自我报告量表中的项目内容。
我们使用杰卡德指数来量化量表之间的内容重叠，描述最近临床实践指南推荐用于评估 CRF 的九种自我报告量表中的结构评估。
对九种评分量表的 208 项分析得出了 20 种不同的 CRF 症状。最常见的症状是精力水平（在所有九种量表中都有）、认知功能、任务表现受损（在八种量表中）、嗜睡和身体功能（在七种量表中）。所有量表之间的平均重叠率较低（杰卡德指数=0.455）。只有一个构念（疲劳持续时间；5.0%）被单个量表捕获，一个症状（精力水平；5.0%）在所有量表中都常见。PFS、MFSI 和 BFI 各自都从 NCCN 对 CRF 的各个领域中捕获了至少一个症状。
CRF 量表在其测量的内容上存在异质性，严重损害了使用不同量表的研究之间知识的整合。迫切需要开展未来的工作，以基于相关机制为 CRF 构建更综合的理论和/或计算模型。
