The EORTC cancer outpatient satisfaction with care questionnaire in ambulatory radiotherapy: EORTC OUT-PATSAT35 RT. Validation study for Spanish patients

Objectives: The EORTC OUT-PATSAT35 RT questionnaire evaluates the satisfaction with care (SC) expressed by cancer outpatients treated with radiotherapy. In this study we assess the psychometric properties of the OUT-PATSAT35 RT when applied to a sample of Spanish patients. Methods: A total of 100 patients with different tumor sites completed the EORTC core questionnaire, QLQ-C30, the OUT-PATSAT35 RT, the Oberst patients' perception of care quality and satisfaction scale (OS) and the item on intention to recommend the hospital (I 12). Psychometric evaluation of the structure, reliability and validity of the questionnaire was conducted. Results: Multitrait-scaling analysis showed that 33 out of 34 item scale correlation coefficients met the standards for convergent validity and that many of them met the standards for discriminant validity. Cronbach's coefficients were good (0.70-0.97) for all scales except environment. Correlations between the areas of the QLQ-C30 and OUT-PATSAT35 RT were generally low (<0.40). Correlations between the OS and the IR were moderate with the EORTC OUT-PATSAT35 RT. Areas whose contents were more related had higher correlation coefficients (>0.50), and vice versa (<0.20). Patients with higher scores on the OS and the IR, patients who had more visits to the doctor and patients who had a better performance status showed higher SC levels in 12, 8 and 1 OUT-PATSAT35 RT areas, respectively. Conclusions: The OUT-PATSAT35 RT appears to be a reliable and valid instrument when applied to a sample of Spanish cancer patients. These results are in line with those of the validation study conducted by the authors of the questionnaire. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.