Validity and reliability of the Spanish fear-avoidance components scale in breast cancer survivors

Abstract

Objective:The aim of this study was to carry out a psychometric analysis of theFear-Avoidance Components Scale (FACS-Sp) in Spanish breast cancer survivors(BCS).Methods:A validation study was carried out in 154 BCS. Participants were recruitedfrom the service of Medical Oncology of the University Clinical Hospital Virgen de laVictoria, in Málaga (Spain). A psychometric analysis of internal consistency, internalstructure and convergent validity of the FACS-Sp was performed. Cronbach's alphawas calculated for internal consistency. Exploratory Factor Analysis was used todetermine the internal structure of the FACS-Sp. Convergent validity with the TampaScale of Kinesiophobia (TSK) and the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) was deter-mined using the Pearson correlation coefficient.Results:The internal consistency was high (McDonald'sω=0.91). The ExploratoryFactor Analysis yielded one factor explaining the 40.80% of total variance.Convergent validity with the TSK and the PCS was demonstrated.Conclusions:The FACS-Sp has demonstrated to be a valid and reliable measure forassessing pain-related fear avoidance in BCS based on internal consistency, structuralvalidity and convergent validity. Further studies that analyse other measurementproperties in different Spanish cancer populations are needed.