Validity and reliability of the Comfort Assessment Breast Cancer Instrument in breast cancer palliative care

Indonesia is a developing country and most breast cancer patients present with terminal conditions, including discomfort. Comfort is a crucial component of nursing in palliative care, especially in breast cancer patients. However, this condition is difficult to assess and therefore assign as a diagnosis. Some comfort assessment tools have been developed in other countries are found not appropriate for an Indonesian context. This study is a sequence of prior qualitative research regarding a comfort assessment tool to be developed in Indonesia. This study piloted the comfort assessment tool in 55 patients with breast cancer to test if it is valid, reliable, and easy to use. This cross-sectional study was conducted at an Army hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Comfort Assessment Breast Cancer Instrument measured many aspect of the patient comfort level including physical, psycho-social, cultural-spiritual, finance, and environmental comfort using a Likert scale from 1-4 and 34 items. Data were processed using statistical software. The face validity test yielded coefficient a of 0.299-0.691, while the reliability test produced a reasonably good result as well (a = 0.912). Therefore this measure should be further assessed by an expert panel and including construct validity.