Psychometric properties of the acceptance and action questionnaire (AAQ II) Malay version in cancer patients

Psychological inflexibility has been found as one of the predictor to psychopathology in cancer patient. Cancer patients tend to experience psychological inflexibility as a reaction to cancer diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Therefore, there is a need to identify psychological inflexibility due to its impact on quality of life among cancer patients. OBJECTIVES: Acceptance and action questionnaire (AAQ II) is a scale used to assess psychological inflexibility. The aim of this study is to translate AAQ II into Malay language and evaluate the psychometric properties of AAQ II Malay version. METHODS: The AAQ II which has been translated into Malay language via back translation procedure was distributed to 101 cancer patients and 100 non-cancer patients. The evaluation of psychometric properties in this study included content validity index, internal consistency, parallel reliability, exploratory factor analysis, concurrent validity, sensitivity and specificity of AAQ II Malay version. RESULTS: AAQ II Malay version has established good content validity index, acceptable internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.91, excellent parallel reliability and adequate concurrent validity. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results demonstrated AAQ II Malay version is a unidimensional factor instrument. The result of sensitivity and specificity of AAQ II Malay version indicated cancer patients who scored more than 17.5 were having significant psychological inflexibility. CONCLUSION: AAQ II Malay version is a reliable and valid instrument to measure psychological inflexibility among cancer patient in Malaysia.