Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy: General (FACT-G)

Name of Questionnaire

Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General, Version 4 (FACT-G v. 4)

Description

General quality of life instrument intended for use with a variety of chronic illness conditions. Originally validated in a general cancer population that included lung cancer patients. Core instrument in the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) Measurement System, a system which has multiple disease-, treatment-, and condition-specific subscales to complement the FACT-G, including one for lung cancer ( FACT-L).

Developer

David Cella

Address

David Cella, Ph.D.
Research Professor
Institute for Health Services Research and Policy Studies
Northwestern University Director
Center on Outcomes, Research and Education
Evanston Northwestern Healthcare
1000 Central Street
Suite 101
Evanston, IL USA 60201
FAX: 847-570-1735

E-mail

d-cella@nwu.edu

URL

www.facit.org

Cost & availability

No charge for use of the English versions. Contact D Cella for permission.

Administration

Self

Time to complete

5 minutes¹

Number of items

27

Domains & categories

4

Name of categories/domains

Physical, social/family, emotional, and functional well-being.

Scaling of items

Five-point scale from 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much)

Scoring

Subscale scores added to obtain total score. Alternative scoring includes the Trial Outcome Index (TOI), which is the sum of the Physical, Functional, and Lung Cancer Subscales. The TOI is reported to be an efficient and precise summary index of physical and functional outcomes.

Reliability

Validity

Discriminated between patients based on disease stage, performance status rating, and hospitalization status¹. Differential responsiveness of subscales to groups that differed in physical, social, emotional, and functional well-being¹. Compared as expected with Functional Living Index – Cancer (FLIC), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status rating, and shortened forms of the Profile of Mood States (POMS), Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS), and Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (M-CSDS)¹.

Responsiveness

Reported¹

Minimally important difference

Not reported

Research use

Not reported in patients with lung cancer

Clinical use

Not reported in patients with lung cancer

Language

FACT-G: Afrikaans, Bulgarian, Chinese (Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Malay, Norwegian, Pedi, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Tswana, Turkish, Zulu

References

1. Cella DF, Tulsky DS, Gray G, et al. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale: development and validation of the general measure. J Clin Oncol 1993; 11:570-79.

Date of information

May 1999