Validation study of the Korean version of the neurocognitive questionnaire in the childhood cancer survivor study

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ABSTRACT Neurocognitive sequelae are common late complications in childhood cancer survivors (CCS), impacting quality of life, yet no validated Korean tool exists to screen neurocognitive function effectively. Korean CCS (N = 638) and their siblings (N = 218) were included from a cohort study of Korean CCS at three major hospitals in South Korea. To determine the underlying structure of K-NCQ, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed. Pearson’s correlations were used to evaluate concurrent and convergent validity. We also explored known-group validity of K-NCQ by comparing the score of K-NCQ across the four risk stratified groups. The mean age of the study participants was 17.5 ± 4.7 years at the time of the survey and 8.8 ± 5.2 years at the time of cancer diagnosis. Exploratory factor analysis supported the five-factor structure within the original four-domains (factor 2 and factor 5 can be incorporated under emotional regulation domain), and confirmatory factor analysis supported the five-factor structure, excluding one item with cross-loadings (item 8) within the original four domains, demonstrating a sufficient level of goodness-of-fit indices (comparative fit index = 0.926, root mean square error of approximation = 0.045). The K-NCQ demonstrated high internal consistency (α = 0.91 for the total scale and α = 0.74–0.89 for each subdomain). Moderate correlations were found between K-NCQ domains and subscales of other questionnaires and tests for cognitive function. Our study demonstrated the validity of K-NCQ, thus supporting that K-NCQ is a useful tool to assess the neurocognitive function in Korean CCS in clinical settings.