• Kari Britt Hagen, Turid Aas, Kirsten Lode, Jennifer Gjerde, Ernst Lien, Jan Terje Kvaløy, Timothy L Lash, Håvard Søiland, and Ragna Lind.
• Department of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway. Electronic address: kari.britt.hagen@helse-bergen.no.
• Eur J Oncol Nurs. 2015 Apr 1; 19 (2): 113-9.

PurposeSeveral studies have shown that uncertainty about disease and fear of disease progression affects psychosocial adjustment and quality of life. The purpose of this study was to validate a Norwegian short version of the "The Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale" (SF-MUIS) and to examine the impact of uncertainty in illness in breast cancer patients.Method And Sample209 patients in breast cancer treatment completed questionnaires for SF-MUIS, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-ES), and eight questions concerning quality of the patient information provided (IQP). Relationship between scores on uncertainty in illness and anxiety, depression, social support, emotional well-being, the quality of patient information provided, and age were studied by multiple regression analyses.ResultsOrdinal coefficient alpha for the Norwegian version of SF-MUIS was 0.70. Scores on SF-MUIS correlated significantly with scores on HADS (P = 0.001), FACT-ES (P = 0.001), and IQP (P = 0.001) indicating good convergent validity. The patients reported a moderate degree of uncertainty in illness. However, those who had been diagnosed with breast cancer for a year, reported higher scores than those newly diagnosed (P=<0.0001). Information provided was the sole significant predictor of illness uncertainty (P=<0.0001).ConclusionThe results of the present study confirm that the Norwegian version of the SF-MUIS is a suitable tool for assessment of uncertainty in breast cancer patients, who reported a moderate degree of uncertainty in illness.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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