Emotional, physical and social consequences of breast cancer screening: Reliability and use of a clinical questionnaire

The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of a French Canadian version of the "Psychological Consequences Questionnaire" (PCQ) among 306 Q uebec women between the ages of 50 and 69. dThe internal consistencies of the emotional, physical and social dimension s are respectively 0.91, 0.86 and 0.72 (Cronbach's alpha). The temporal sta bility was greater than 68% for each question. Meanwhile, analysis showed t hat 4 of the 12 questions were highly predictive of the results of the whol e questionnaire (R-2=0.31). In addition, these 4 questions are in concordan ce with the diagnostic criteria for adaptative disorder, anxiety disorder a nd general anxiety. The French Canadian version of PCQ was found to be easy to use and reliable . We would suggest a shorter version of the questionnaire, including only f our questions. This version would be even easier to use and more effective to control the emotional, physical and social consequences over the differe nt stages of breast cancer screening.