Cultural adaptation and validation of the Survivor Unmet Needs Survey Short-Form among cancer patients in China

Aim: Cancer patients have long been found to have multiple types of unmet needs during their survivorship. Composite psychological instruments are essential for measuring the unmet needs of cancer patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Short-Form Survivor Unmet Needs Survey (SF-SUNS)-Chinese version. Design: A cross-sectional survey. Methods: The Chinese version was developed using the standard Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) translation methodology and 428 Chinese cancer patients participated in the survey between 2016-2017. Inter-rater reliability, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were calculated. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis supported the four-factor structure with good model fit. Cronbach's alpha of 0.894 for the overall scale and intra-class correlation coefficients (0.869-0.884) indicated that reliability was satisfactory. The EFA extracted four factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 and these factors explained 50.68% of the total variance. The Chinese version of SF-SUNS was confirmed to have the potential to become a useful and valid instrument. It could contribute to the assessment of unmet needs among Chinese cancer patients with accuracy and with respect to Chinese culture and context. This measurement of unmet needs may help promote cancer management and nursing quality. Clinical nurses and researchers could use the simple assessment tool to target the individual needs of Chinese cancer patients and then provide more personalized care efficiently.

Automated summary

This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Short-Form Survivor Unmet Needs Survey (SF-SUNS) Chinese version, which demonstrated good reliability and validity for assessing the unmet needs of Chinese cancer patients. It has the potential to contribute to cancer management and nursing quality by providing personalized care efficiently based on individual needs.