Detecting social problems in cancer patients

Diagnosis of and treatment for cancer may not only create physical and emot ional difficulties for patients but may also have an impact on social aspec ts of patients' lives. Screening for social problems has not become part of routine oncology practice. This may be due to lack of a suitable questionn aire. This paper presents a psychometric analysis of the Problems Checklist with a view to assessing its usefulness as a screening tool for social pro blems in oncology. Evaluation was undertaken using data from an earlier stu dy of 505 patients who completed the checklist. Frequency of endorsement, m issing values, factor analysis and reliability and validity analysis of the summated scales were carried out. Missing data rates ranged from 4 to 18% over the 16 items. Fourteen items were well endorsed. Factor analysis produ ced a four-factor structure with components labelled daily living, relation ships, economics and emotions. Reliability and validity tests endorsed the factor structure with the components on economics and emotions being partic ularly credible. Difficulties with relationships are harder to measure and results from the analysis suggest that this is an area that warrants furthe r investigation. The checklist is a useful tool for highlighting problems. As a tool for screening for social problems it has some limitations. Copyri ght (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.