• Sophie Pautex, Petra Vayne-Bossert, Mathieu Bernard, Michel Beauverd, Boris Cantin, Claudia Mazzocato, Catherine Thollet, Catherine Bollondi-Pauly, Dominique Ducloux, François Herrmann, and Monica Escher.
• Division of Primary Care, Geneva University Hospitals and Geneva University, Geneva, Switzerland. Electronic address: sophie.pautex@hcuge.ch.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2017 Nov 1; 54 (5): 721-726.e1.

ContextThe Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) is a brief, widely adopted, multidimensional questionnaire to evaluate patient-reported symptoms.ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to define a standard French version of the ESAS (F-ESAS) to determine the psychometric properties in French-speaking patients.MethodsIn a first pilot study, health professionals (n = 20) and patients (n = 33) defined the most adapted terms in French (F-ESAS). In a prospective multicentric study, palliative care patients completed the three forms of F-ESAS (F-ESAS-VI, F-ESAS-VE, and F-ESAS-NU, where VI is visual, VE, verbal, and NU, numerical), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. All patients had a test-retest evaluation during the same half-day. Standardized distraction material was used between each scale.ResultsOne hundred twenty-four patients were included (mean age [±SD]: 68.3 ± 12; 70 women; 54 men). Test-retest reliability was high for all three F-ESAS, and the correlation between these scales was nearly perfect (Spearman rs = 0.66-0.91; P < 0.05). F-ESAS-VI, F-ESAS-VE, and F-ESAS-NU performed similarly and were equally reliable, although there was a trend toward lower reliability for F-ESAS-VI. Correlation between F-ESAS depression and anxiety and HADS depression and anxiety, respectively, were positive (Spearman rs = 0.38-0.41 for depression; Spearman rs = 0.48-0.57 for anxiety, P < 0.05). Among patients, 59 (48%), 45 (36%), and 20 (16%) preferred to assess their symptoms with F-ESAS-VE, F-ESAS-NU, and F-ESAS-VI, respectively.ConclusionThe F-ESAS is a valid and reliable tool for measuring multidimensional symptoms in French-speaking patients with an advanced cancer. All forms of F-ESAS performed well with a trend for better psychometric performance for F-ESAS-NU, but patients preferred the F-ESAS-VE.Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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