The Persian Version of the Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory (FCRI): Translation and Evaluation of Its Psychometric Properties

 This study aimed to translate and validate the Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory (FCRI) questionnaire into Persian and to investigate its psychometric properties.

 The FCRI was translated to Persian using a linguistic methodology according to WHO guidelines. A total of 450 breast cancer survivors who had the following inclusion criteria were included: time elapse of more than six months after the treatment prior to the study; absence ofobjective markers of recurrence, fluency in the Persian language, and signing the informed consent. Internal consistency was estimated with Cronbach's α coefficient and test-retest reliability with Interclass correlation.  Concurrent validity was estimated through Pearson’s correlation between the FCRI and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Principal component analysis (PCA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were employed to evaluate dimensionality.

 The Persian version was acceptable for patients. The content validity index (CVI) was 0.80.  The instrument had good test-retest reliability (ICC= 0.96) and internal consistency (Cronbach’s α=0.86).  PCA and CFA indicated that the factor structure of the Persian version was similar to the original questionnaire and had acceptable goodness of fit.  Correlations between the FCRI and HADS was remarkable (r= 0.252 – 0.639), indicating acceptable concurrent validity.

 The Persian version of FCRI could be considered a good cross-cultural equivalent for the original English version. The questionnaire was a reliable and valid instrument in terms of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and dimensionality.