Cancer‐related communication between female patients and male partners scale: a pilot study

Abstract

The study's objective was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Cancer-Related Communication Problems within Couples Scale (CRCP), a measure to assess whether patients and their partners have difficulty talking about cancer with each other. The CRCP Scale included 18 items concerning open communication/emotional support, treatment-specific issues, self-protection, and protective buffering. Patients and partners responded through the American Cancer Society's website and mailed questionnaires through Y-ME. The CRCP's validity was tested using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS, marital relationship). 189 female patients and 135 male partners participated in the survey. Three items were deleted based on lack of clarity or an item not being applicable to many respondents, resulting in a 15 item scale. The number of CRCP problems' internal consistency in the 15 item scale was good for both patients and partners (alpha coefficient = 0.87, 0.81, respectively). The number of patients' CRCP problems correlated with the DAS (p < 0.0001), and the number of partners' CRCP problems correlated with the HADS (p < 0.0001) and the DAS (p < 0.0001). Analyses supported the CRCP Scale's reliability and validity for female cancer patients and male partners.