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The psychometric properties of a caregiving-related strain scale in oncology

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Abstract

Background

Caregivers are rarely assessed for caregiving-related strain. This study explored the psychometric properties of the caregiving-related physical, emotional, and financial strain questions in the National Alliance for Caregiving’s (NAC) survey and a new total score (NAC-3).

Methods

Comparisons were made to existing caregiver quality of life, distress, and burden instruments through an online, cross-sectional survey of U.S. adult cancer caregivers.

Results

Findings from 299 caregivers showed that the NAC-3 was moderately to strongly associated with each of the comparison instruments. Similar concepts were also shown to be more strongly correlated (except physical health construct) and dissimilar concepts items had weaker correlations.

Conclusion

Findings suggest that the total score and individual items are psychometrically sound for use as compared to established caregiving-related instruments. The total score and items provide a concise option, potentially beneficial for clinical use, and can be compared to nationally representative samples of caregivers through NAC’s surveys.

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Data availability

Data are not publicly available but can be shared as needed with the journal.

Code availability

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Arcadia University, 450 S. Easton Rd, Glenside, PA, USA

    Margaret L. Longacre & Melissa F. Miller

  2. Cancer Prevention and Control Program, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Carolyn Y. Fang

Authors
  1. Margaret L. Longacre
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  2. Melissa F. Miller
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  3. Carolyn Y. Fang
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Contributions

L: contributed to the conceptualization, study design, and facilitation of data collection with Lucid, LLC, data interpretation, and writing of the manuscript. M: contributed to the data analysis, interpretation of data, and writing of the manuscript. F: contributed to the study design, data interpretation, and writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Margaret L. Longacre.

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The authors indicate no conflicts of interest.

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The study was approved as exempt by the Arcadia University IRB.

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All participants provided informed consent.

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Longacre, M.L., Miller, M.F. & Fang, C.Y. The psychometric properties of a caregiving-related strain scale in oncology. Qual Life Res 32, 285–294 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03235-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03235-7

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