Quality criteria and user-friendliness in self-reported questionnaires on cancer-related fatigue: a review

ObjectiveCancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a distressing, persistent, subjective sense of tiredness or exhaustion that occurs in 70–100% of cancer patients. The purpose of this review was to provide an overview of the quality of research performed on existing CRF self-report questionnaires and compare their reported psychometric properties and user-friendliness.MethodsDatabase searches of CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Scopus, PEDro, and PsycINFO were undertaken to find published scales. Standardized criteria were used to assess quality and user-friendliness.ResultsThirty-five articles were included that described 18 questionnaires—seven one-dimensional questionnaires and 11 multidimensional questionnaires. The mean item count was 20.8 (range: 3–83). The mean overall score of the one-dimensional questionnaires was 10.4 of a maximum of 18 points (range: 7.6–14.3). The mean overall score of the multidimensional questionnaires was 9.4 of a maximum of 18 points (range: 4.3–14.4).ConclusionRecommendations were made for the selection of a scale. We argue in favor of repeatedly reassessing psychometric properties of even established questionnaires to ensure they comply with evermore increasing stringent quality criteria.