Cognitive testing of tobacco use items for administration to patients with cancer and cancer survivors in clinical research Journal Article


Authors: Land, S. R.; Warren, G. W.; Crafts, J. L.; Hatsukami, D. K.; Ostroff, J. S.; Willis, G. B.; Chollette, V. Y.; Mitchell, S. A.; Folz, J. N. M.; Gulley, J. L.; Szabo, E.; Brandon, T. H.; Duffy, S. A.; Toll, B. A.
Article Title: Cognitive testing of tobacco use items for administration to patients with cancer and cancer survivors in clinical research
Abstract: BACKGROUND: To the authors' knowledge, there are currently no standardized measures of tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure in patients diagnosed with cancer, and this gap hinders the conduct of studies examining the impact of tobacco on cancer treatment outcomes. The objective of the current study was to evaluate and refine questionnaire items proposed by an expert task force to assess tobacco use. METHODS: Trained interviewers conducted cognitive testing with cancer patients aged >= 21 years with a history of tobacco use and a cancer diagnosis of any stage and organ site who were recruited at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Iterative rounds of testing and item modification were conducted to identify and resolve cognitive issues (comprehension, memory retrieval, decision/judgment, and response mapping) and instrument navigation issues until no items warranted further significant modification. RESULTS: Thirty participants (6 current cigarette smokers, 1 current cigar smoker, and 23 former cigarette smokers) were enrolled from September 2014 to February 2015. The majority of items functioned well. However, qualitative testing identified wording ambiguities related to cancer diagnosis and treatment trajectory, such as "treatment" and "surgery"; difficulties with lifetime recall; errors in estimating quantities; and difficulties with instrument navigation. Revisions to item wording, format, order, response options, and instructions resulted in a questionnaire that demonstrated navigational ease as well as good question comprehension and response accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: The Cancer Patient Tobacco Use Questionnaire (C-TUQ) can be used as a standardized item set to accelerate the investigation of tobacco use in the cancer setting. (C) 2016 American Cancer Society.
Keywords: clinical trials as topic; smoking; diagnosis; behavior; tobacco; quality-of-life; lung-cancer; cigarette-smoking; neck-cancer; trials; reported outcomes; smoking-cessation; outcomes pro instruments; surveys and questionnaires; questionnaire design; major pulmonary morbidity
Journal Title: Cancer
Volume: 122
Issue: 11
ISSN: 0008-543X
Publisher: Wiley Blackwell  
Date Published: 2016-06-01
Start Page: 1728
End Page: 1734
Language: English
ACCESSION: WOS:000378402900015
DOI: 10.1002/cncr.29964
PROVIDER: wos
PUBMED: 27019325
PMCID: PMC5523930
Notes: Article -- Source: Wos
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  1. Jamie S Ostroff
    344 Ostroff