The female self-advocacy in cancer survivorship scale: Validating a new measure to support patient voice and engagement.

Abstract

96 Background: The Female Self-Advocacy in Cancer Survivorship (FSACS) Scale is a new measurement tool designed to address the increasing need for cancer survivors to lead their care in face of barriers. Based on previous input from female cancer survivors and other stakeholders, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the construct validity of the FSACS Scale. Construct validity is supported by evidence from: (I) Internal structure consistent with the underlying model of self-advocacy; (II) Sensitivity to differences between known groups; (III) Relationships between self-advocacy and key predictors (openness and conscientiousness; information engagement; social support) and outcomes (symptom distress and healthcare utilization); (IV) Relationships between self-advocacy and related concepts (patient activation; self-advocacy within the HIV/AIDS population); and (V) Relationships between self-advocacy and criterion measures. Methods: A mixed-mode cross-sectional survey design was used. Women with a history of an adult diagnosis of invasive cancer were recruited from two patient registries and seven advocacy organizations. Analyses included an exploratory factor analysis, t-tests, and bivariate correlations. Results: 315 adult female cancer survivors completed the survey. Evidence from all five construct validity hypotheses supports the construct validity of the FSACS Scale. The factor analysis confirmed the three underlying dimensions of self-advocacy resulting in a 20-item measure explaining 45.87% of the variance in responses with subscales’ Cronbach’s alphas between 0.791 and 0.850. Conclusions: Results support that the FSACS Scale is a theoretically-grounded measure of self-advocacy that can be used by clinicians and researchers to identify women at-risk for poor outcomes associated with low self-advocacy.