Abstract

BACKGROUND:

To ensure health related quality of life (HRQOL) during the survival of patients with prostate cancer (PCa) is a priority. The development of specific HRQOL questionnaires aids to assess the disease impact, its treatment and the patient's perception (concerns, expectations and interests) that might go unnoticed.

OBJECTIVES:

To develop and validate the first Spanish HRQL questionnaire specific for patients with PCa.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

The questionnaire CAVIPRES had 3 phases of development: 1.-generation of items (literature research, expert meeting and 2 focus groups with patients), 2.- reduction of items (self-administered survey with a preliminary version and clinimetric and psychometric analyses), 3: validation of the questionnaire (observational study with 2 visits where patients completed the CAVIPRES, SF-36 and UCLA-PCI tests and analysis of psychometric properties in terms of validity, reliability and sensitivity to change).

RESULTS:

A preliminary list of 75 potential items was obtained in phase 1.412 patients were recruited and answered this preliminary version in phase 2. 35 items were deleted. 436 patients responded to the definitive-30-items obtained version (CAVIPRES-30) in Phase 3. CAVIPRES-30 showed feasibility (items lost <4%, ceiling effect: 0% floor effect: 0% in the overall score), high reliability in terms of internal consistency (alpha = 0.77) and re-test reliability (ICC = 0.92). There was a good correlation between tests CAVIPRES and SGF-36 and UCLA-PCI for similar domains

CONCLUSION:

The questionnaire CAVIPRES-30 is a feasible, reliable and sensitive to change, useful in clinical research for prostate cancer.