Psychometric validation of a Patient-Centred Quality of Cancer Care Questionnaire in Mexico

ObjectivesTo develop and validate a Patient-Centred Quality of Cancer Care Questionnaire in Spanish (PCQCCQ-S) appropriate to the Mexican context.DesignPsychometric validation of a questionnaire.SettingTwo public oncology hospitals in Mexico City.Participants1809 patients with cancer aged ≥18 years.Source of informationCross-sectional survey.MethodsThe validation procedures comprised (1) content validity through a group of experts and patients; (2) item reduction and evaluation of the factor structure, through an exploratory factor analysis based on the polychoric correlation matrix; (3) internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha; (4) convergent validity between the PCQCCQ-S and supportive care needs scale; (5) correlation analysis between the PCQCCQ-S and quality of life scale by calculating Spearman’s rank-correlation coefficient; and (6) differentiation by ‘known groups’ through the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.ResultsThe PCQCCQ-S has 30 items with the following five factors accounting for 96.5% of the total variance: (1) timely care; (2) clarity of the information; (3) information for treatment decision-making; (4) activities to address biopsychosocial needs; and (5) respectful and coordinated care. Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from 0.73 to 0.90 among the factors. PCQCCQ-S has moderate convergent validity with supportive care needs scale, revealing that higher quality is correlated with lower patient needs. PCQCCQ-S has acceptable ability to differentiate by ‘known groups’, showing that older patients and those with low levels of education perceived lower total quality of care as compared with their counterparts.ConclusionPCQCCQ-S has acceptable psychometric properties and can be used to measure quality of patient-centred cancer care in Mexico and serve as a reference to develop PCQCCQ-S in other Spanish-speaking countries.