• Young Sun Rhee, Dong Ok Shin, Kwang Mi Lee, Han Jin Yu, Joung Wha Kim, Soon Ok Kim, Ran Lee, Yeon Ok Lee, Nam Shin Kim, and Young Ho Yun.
• Quality of Cancer Care Branch, Research Institute, National Cancer Center, Gyeonggi-do, Korea.
• Qual Life Res. 2005 Apr 1; 14 (3): 899-904.

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the internal consistency and construct validity of a Korean version of the Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer (CQOLC-K).MethodsThe CQOLC-K was administered to 270 caregivers, along with the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).ResultsInternal consistency of the CQOLC-K (0.90) and all inter-scale correlations were significant in the expected direction (p < 0.001). Convergent validity was supported with moderate to strong correlations between the CQOLC-K and the mental component scores of the SF-36 (r = 0.39-0.58), and between the CQOLC-K and the two BDI scores (r = 0.50 and 0.60). Divergent validity was supported by weaker or negligible correlations between the CQOLC-K and the physical component scores of the SF-36 (r = 0.16-0.30). Contrasting groups validity showed that the CQOLC-K was able to distinguish clearly between patients differing in treatment history (p < 0.005), performance status (p < 0.005), care area (p < 0.005), and length of time after diagnosis (p < 0.005).ConclusionThese findings support the internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Korean version of the CQOLC-K. The instrument can be used to measure quality of life in caregivers of cancer patients in clinical and epidemiological research.

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