Factor Analysis of the Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer (CQOLC) Scale for Chinese Cancer Caregivers: A Preliminary Reliability and Validity Study of the CQOLC-Chinese Version

The English version of the Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer (CQOLC) was translated into simplified Chinese (CQOLC-C), following cultural translation, back-translation and pretest steps. Three hundred and sixty one cancer caregivers participated in this study. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess CQOLC-C reliability. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) was used to generate two models of the measure’s factor structure, and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were used to test each model, such that the best model to explain the latent structure of the CQOLC-C was identified. EFA using different factor extraction methods yielded two models including four and eight factors. According to the CFA results, model 2 was better fit for the original study data, based on the RMSEA criterion [0.058(90% CI = 0.051-0.065)], χ(2) (531) = 853.92, p < 0.0001; CFI (0.96), NNFI (0.96), IFI (0.97), and NFI (0.92). We also examined the effect of removing three items on the CQOLC-C factor structure and discuss the resulting differences from other versions. These results indicate that the CQOLC-C’s factor structure does not fully fit the original theorized model. This study provides preliminary support for further use of the CQOLC-C. However, the present work provides only partial support for the relevance and construct validity of the scale for Chinese caregivers.