Validity and reliability testing of the FAMCARE Scale: measuring family satisfaction with advanced cancer care.

The purpose of the study was to test the validity and reliability of the FAMCARE Scale which was developed to measure family satisfaction with advanced cancer care. The FAMCARE Scale was developed based upon earlier qualitative research which identified indicators of family care satisfaction and a subsequent Q-sort study that reduced those items to the most salient indicators of satisfaction according to a larger, representative sample (N = 210). A pilot test of the FAMCARE Scale using a convenience sample of 30 family members of advanced cancer patients was conducted. The scale achieved internal consistency estimates of 0.93 at two testing times, a test-retest correlation of 0.91, and estimates of criterion validity using the McCusker Scale of 0.80 and 0.77. Cluster analysis of the scale suggested 4 subdimensions. Although the scale requires further testing to establish its reliability and validity, these preliminary results indicate that the scale may be a psychometrically sound instrument useful for measurement of family satisfaction with advanced cancer care.