Validation of the American version of the CareGiver Oncology Quality of Life (CarGOQoL) questionnaire

Validation of the American version of the CareGiver Oncology Quality of Life (CarGOQoL) questionnaire, by Karine Baumstarck, EA3279, Self-perceived Health Assessment Research Unit, Aix Marseille Université, France

The CareGiver Oncology Quality of Life (CarGOQoL) questionnaire was developed to assess the quality of life of caregivers of patients with cancer1. It is a 29-item multidimensional, self-administered instrument, which was developed in French, based on the caregivers’ exclusive point of view (involving the content analysis of 77 face-to-face semi-structured interviews performed by experienced professionals), and validated in a large heterogeneous sample of caregivers including partners, parents and children. The CarGOQoL captures specific dimensions, such as self-esteem or private life.
We are pleased to announce that the CarGOQoL questionnaire is now available is US English2. Please see the full length article published in Health and Quality of Life Outcomes (HQLO): http://hqlo.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12955-016-0487-6

Below is the abstract as published in HQLO (no changes made):
Background. The CareGiver Oncology Quality of Life (CarGOQoL) questionnaire, a 29-item, multidimensional, self-administered questionnaire, was validated using a large French sample. We reported the linguistic validation process and the metric validity of the English version of CarGOQoL in the United- States.
Methods. The translation process consisted of 3 consecutive steps: forward-backward translation, acceptability testing, and cognitive interviews. The psychometric testing was applied to caregivers of consecutive patients with representative cancers who were recruited from the Regional Cancer Center in northwestern Pennsylvania. All individuals completed the CarGOQoL at baseline, day- 30, and day- 90. Internal consistency, reliability, external validity, reproducibility, and sensitivity to change were tested.
Results. The translated version was validated on a total of 87 American cancer caregivers. The dimensions of the CarGOQoL generally demonstrated a high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.70 for all but four domain scores). External validity testing revealed that the CarGOQoL index score correlated significantly with all SF-36 dimension scores except the physical composite score (Pearson’s correlation: 0.28–0.70). Reproducibility was satisfactory at day- 30 (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.46–0.94) and day- 90 (0.43–0.92). Four specific dimensions of CarGOQoL showed responsiveness: the Psychological well-being, the Relationships with health care system, the Social support and the Finances.
Conclusions. The American version of the CarGOQoL constitutes a useful instrument to measure QoL in caregivers of cancer patients in the United- States.
If you wish to use the CarGOQoL, please visit contact Mapi Research Trust: https://eprovide.mapi-trust.org

References

1. Minaya P, Baumstarck K, Berbis J, Goncalves A, Barlesi F, Michel G et al.The CareGiver Oncology Quality of Life questionnaire (CarGOQoL): development and validation of an instrument to measure the quality of life of the caregivers of patients with cancer. Eur J Cancer. 2012 Apr;48(6):904-11.
2. Kaveney SC, Baumstarck K, Minaya-Flores P, Shannon T, Symes P, Loundou A et al. Validation of the American version of the CareGiver Oncology Quality of Life (CarGOQoL) questionnaire. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2016 May 28;14(1):82.