Development and Validation of the Simplified Chinese Version of EORTC QLQ-HCC18 for Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

This study aimed to develop and validate the Simplified Chinese Version of the Quality of Life Questionnaire for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (the QLQ-HCC18). It was developed by the strict translation procedure of EORTC guidelines, and the psychometrics were evaluated on a sample of 114 patients. The internal consistency Cronbach's α were greater than 0.60 for all domains (exception of Jaundice 0.38), and all test–retest reliability coefficients were greater than 0.80. Four out of eight domains had statistically significant changes with effect size standardized response mean (SRM) ranging from 0.31 to 0.73. The Simplified Chinese version of QLQ-HCC18 demonstrates good validity, reliability, and responsiveness.

Keywords::

• FACT-Hep
• Hepatocellular carcinoma
• Multi-trait scaling analysis
• Psychometric properties
• QLQ-HCC18
• Quality of life
• Standardized response mean

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

In carrying out this research project, we received substantial assistance from Prof. Neil Aaronson at EORTC, and many staff including Gaofeng Li, Gang Bai, Hongying Yang at the Yunnan Tumor Hospital, and Prof. Gary Lyman from Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. We sincerely appreciate their kind help.