Reliability and Validity of the Malay Version of the Breast-Impact of Treatment Scale (MVBITS) in Breast Cancer Womenundergoing Chemotherapy

Background: Body image dissatisfaction among breast cancer survivors has been associated with psychologicalstress resultant from breast cancer and resultant surgery. This study aimed to examine the psychometric propertiesof the Malay Version of the Breast-Impact of Treatment Scale (MVBITS) and to investigate the associations ofretained factors with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale(RSES). Materials and
Methods: The MVBITS was ‘forward–backward’ translated from English to Malay andthen administered to 70 female breast cancer patients who came to the Oncology Clinic of University MalayaMedical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to undergo chemotherapy. Principal component analysis (PCA)with varimax rotation was performed to explore the factor structure of the MVBITS. Associations of retainedfactors were estimated with reference to Spearman correlation coefficients.
Results: The internal consistencyreliability of MVBITS was good (Cronbach’s alpha 0.945) and showed temporal stability over a 3-week period.Principal component analysis suggested two factors termed as ‘Intrusion’ and ‘Avoidance’ domains. Thesefactors explained 70.3% of the variance. Factor 1 comprised the effects of breast cancer treatment on theemotion and thought, while Factor 2 informed attempts to limit exposure of the body to self or others. The Factor1 of MVBITS was positively correlated with total, depression and anxiety sub-scores of HADS. Factor 2 waspositively correlated with total and anxiety sub-scores of HADS. MVBITS was also positively correlated withthe RSES scores.
Conclusions: The results showed that the Malay Version of Breast-Impact of Treatment Scalepossesses satisfactory psychometric properties suggesting that this instrument is appropriate for assessment ofbody change stress among female breast cancer patients in Malaysia.