The Psychosocial Distress Questionnaire-Breast Cancer (PDQ-BC) is a useful instrument to screen psychosocial problems

• Published in: Supportive care in cancer 2012-08, Vol.20 (8), p.1659-1665
• Main Authors: Bogaarts, Mirjam P. J., Den Oudsten, Brenda L., Roukema, Jan A., Van Riel, Johanna M. G. H., Beerepoot, Laurens V., De Vries, Jolanda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Anxiety - diagnosis; Anxiety - psychology; Body image; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - psychology; Cancer; Depression - diagnosis; Depression - psychology; Depression, Mental; Diagnosis; Female; Financing, Personal; Humans; Mass Screening - methods; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Nursing; Nursing Research; Oncology; Original Article; Pain Medicine; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychological aspects; Psychometrics; Public health; Quality of Life; Quantitative psychology; Questionnaires; Rehabilitation Medicine; Reproducibility of Results; Sexual Behavior - psychology; Social aspects; Stress, Psychological - diagnosis; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Surveys
• ISSN: 0941-4355; 1433-7339
• DOI: 10.1007/s00520-011-1256-z

Purpose Recently, the Psychosocial Distress Questionnaire-Breast Cancer (PDQ-BC), a screening instrument specific for patients with early-stage breast cancer, was developed. The aim of this study was to further examine the psychometric properties of the PDQ-BC, in particular the subscales social support, sexual problems and financial problems. Methods Before patients received treatment ( N  = 123), they completed the PDQ-BC, the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-100) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Results Floor effects were present in 44% of the subscales, whereas ceiling effects were only found in the social support subscale (11%). The PDQ-BC subscales social support, sexual problems and financial problems were highly correlated with the corresponding WHOQOL-100 facets social support, sexual activity and financial resources. Furthermore, the subscale depressive symptoms (PDQ-BC) was highly significantly correlated with the CES-D. Low correlations were found between the PDQ-BC subscales and questionnaires that were expected to be unrelated. Exceptions are the subscales trait anxiety and state anxiety, which had a high correlation with the CES-D. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the subscales trait anxiety, state anxiety, depressive symptoms, body image and physical problems ranged from 0.70 to 0.87. Social problems had a low consistency (0.39). Corrected item–total correlations confirmed the PDQ-BC structure. Conclusions The PDQ-BC has expected floor effects, few ceiling effects and sufficient internal consistency. Furthermore, the construct validity on the PDQ-BC subscales social support, sexual problems and financial problems was good. Thus, the PDQ-BC can be used to screen psychosocial problems in patients with early-stage breast cancer as part of routine care.