Face Validity of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Symptom Index (FACT- B) into Formal Arabic

Background: breast cancer affects over one million women annually and is the mostcommon global malignancy among women. extensive improvements have takenplace in the management of breast cancer in recent years and a higher percentage ofwomen are cured from this disease. a proper assessment of the quality of life ofwomen with breast cancer is an essential component in disease management. thefunctional assessment of cancer therapy- breast symptom index has been commonlyused and well-validated among english speaking populations as well as otherpopulations. to date, no formal translation and evaluation of the functional assessmentof cancer therapy-breast system index exists in arabic. therefore, this study intendsto translate, adapt and face-validate the functional assessment of cancer therapy-breastsystem index into arabic, specifically in the context of the lebanese culture. methods: we conducted forward and backward translation in arabic, combined withface validity by clinicians. this was followed by pre-testing to ensure the instrument’sadequacy and cultural sensitivity conducted by the administration of face-to-faceinterviews with individual breast cancer patients (n=33) and two focus groups (4women/group) to evaluate the relevance and appropriateness of each item and wordsused in the questionnaire. results: study results reinforced the value of the arabic translated version of thefunctional assessment of cancer therapy-breast system index in capturing thequality of life of women with breast cancer in lebanon. conclusion: the instrument was perceived to be adequate, appropriate for use,culturally sensitive, simple as well as exhaustive. suggestions have been made to enrichthe instruments’ ability to incorporate other quality of life dimensions not captured, aswell to enhance the cultural specificity of the functional assessment of cancertherapy-breast system index, when administered among lebanese women diagnosedwith breast cancer who are specifically beyond therapy.