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Standardized versus open‐ended assessment of psychosocial and medical concerns among African American breast cancer patients
Author(s) -
Shelby Rebecca A.,
Lamdan Ruth M.,
Siegel Jamie E.,
Hrywna Mary,
Taylor Kathryn L.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
psycho‐oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.41
H-Index - 137
eISSN - 1099-1611
pISSN - 1057-9249
DOI - 10.1002/pon.959
Subject(s) - psychosocial , worry , breast cancer , standardized test , distress , clinical psychology , psychology , medicine , anxiety , cancer , psychiatry , mathematics education
Standardized quality of life measures have been developed and used primarily with Caucasian and middle‐class cancer patients. This study assessed the ability of several widely used standardized measures to capture the concerns and problems of 89 African American breast cancer patients. Concerns and problems were assessed using both an open‐ended format and standardized measures. The degree of overlap in responses from these two formats was examined. The most frequently reported problems in the open‐ended format included physical (43%), financial (40%), and worry about others (30%). Overall, standardized measures had significant overlap with open‐ended concerns and problems. The Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System‐Short Form subscales/items were associated with corresponding open‐ended physical, financial, and social problems ( R 2 change=0.07–0.16, p 's⩽0.02), the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List‐Short Form was associated with open‐ended social problems ( R 2 change=0.11, p =0.004), and the Mental Health Inventory was associated with open‐ended psychological distress problems ( R 2 change=0.08, p =0.01). One category of open‐ended problems, worry about others, was not captured by standardized measures. With the exception of associations between open‐ended physical problems and psychological distress measures, there were few significant correlations between standardized measures and dissimilar problem categories. These findings suggest that the standardized measures in this study reflected the concerns and problems of African American breast cancer patients. Additional studies are needed to evaluate the utility of other widely used standardized measures that have not been developed or standardized among non‐white samples. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.