Developing Scales for the Assessment of Fatigue in Turkish Pediatric Oncology Patients Aged 13-18 and their Parents

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> This study was planned in an attempt to develop scales for the assessment of fatigue in pediatriconcology patients aged 13-18 and also for their parents. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: In collecting the study data,we used the Child and Parent Information Form, Visual Fatigue Scale, Scale for the Assessment of Fatigue inPediatric Oncology Patients Aged 13-18 and the Scale for the Assessment of Fatigue in Pediatric Oncology PatientsAged 13-18 for Parents. We also used Pearson correlation analysis, Cronbach alpha coefficient, factor analysisand ROC analysis for the study data. <br/><b>Results</b>: In this study, the total Cronbach alpha value of the parent formwas 0.99, the total factor load was 0.72-0.94 with 95% the total variance being explained. The cutoff point of theparent form is 73 points. The total Cronbach alpha value of the child form was 0.99, the total factor load was0.82-0.95, with 89.4% of the total variance being explained. The cutoff point of the child form was 75.5 points.<br/><b>Conclusions</b>: This study suggests that the Scale for the Assessment of Fatigue in Pediatric Oncology PatientsAged 13-18 and the Scale for the Assessment of Fatigue in Pediatric Oncology Patients Aged 13-18 for Parentsare valid and reliable instruments in assessing the fatigue symptoms of children in Turkey.