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Abstract
Objective: To develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a measure of motivation and life outlook (Getting-Out-of-Bed [GoB]). Design: Secondary analysis of baseline and 6-month data from a longitudinal follow-up study of older breast cancer survivors. Participants: Women (N = 660) diagnosed with primary breast cancer stage I—IIIA disease, age ≥65 years, and permission to contact from an attending physician in four geographic regions in the United States (city-based Los Angeles, California; statewide in Minnesota, North Carolina, and Rhode Island). Measurement: Data were collected over 6-months of follow-up from consenting patients’ medical records and telephone interviews with patients. Data collected included the 4-item GoB, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), breast cancer, sociodemographic, and health-related characteristics. Results: Factor analysis produced, as hypothesized, one principal component with eigen values of 2.74baseline and 2.916-months which explained 68.6%baseline and 72.7%6-months of total variance. In further psychometric analyses, GoB exhibited good construct validity (divergent: low nonstatistically significant correlations with unrelated constructs; convergent: moderate statistically significant correlations with related constructs; discriminant: distinguished high HRQoL groups with a high level of significance), excellent internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha 0.84baseline, 0.876-months), and produced stable measurements over 6-months. Women with GoB scores ≥50 at baseline were more likely at 6-months to have good HRQoL, good self-perceived health, and report regular exercise, indicating good predictive ability. Conclusion: GoB demonstrated overall good psychometric properties in this sample of older breast cancer survivors, suggestive of a promising tool for assessing motivation and life outlook in older adults. Nevertheless, because it was developed and initially evaluated in a select sample, using measures with similar but not exact content overlap further evaluation is needed before it can be recommended for widespread use.
This work was supported by grants CA106979, CA/AG 70818, CA84506, and CA92395 from the National Cancer Institute.