• Sophie Kecke, Jochen Ernst, Jens Einenkel, Susanne Singer, and Andreas Hinz.
• Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2017 Aug 11.

Context. Cancer patients frequently suffer from fatigue. Recently, the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life group developed a new 12-item fatigue assessment instrument.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to psychometrically test this questionnaire in comparison with the 3-item fatigue scale of the EORTC QLQ-C30.MethodsA sample of 354 patients who were being treated for breast cancer or gynaecological cancer were examined using the new fatigue questionnaire EORTC QLQ-FA12 and the EORTC QLQ-C30 during their hospital stay (t1) and three months after hospital discharge (t2). Confirmatory factorial analyses (CFA), item analyses, test-retest reliability analyses, and correlation analyses were performed.ResultsThe analyses roughly supported the three-factorial structure of the FA12, which is comprised of the subscales Physical, Emotional, and Cognitive fatigue. The fit indices of the CFA were worse than those of the original paper but nevertheless acceptable. Cronbach's alpha of the total scale was 0.92; the coefficients of the subscales were between 0.79 and 0.93. The correlation between the EORTC QLQ-FA12 total scale and the fatigue scale of the EORTC QLQ-C30 was 0.69, the correlation between the t1 and t2 scores was 0.45 for the EORTC QLQ-FA12 total scale and between 0.37 and 0.47 for the subscales.ConclusionThe psychometric coefficients justify the calculation of a sum score, which can be used by clinicians to assess the general degree of fatigue. While the 3-item fatigue scale of the EORTC QLQ-C30 stresses the physical aspect of fatigue, the new EORTC QLQ-FA12 covers its emotional and cognitive aspects as well.Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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