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Ovarian and cervical cancer awareness: development of two validated measurement tools
  1. Alice E Simon1,
  2. Jane Wardle2,
  3. Chloe Grimmett3,
  4. Emily Power4,
  5. Elizabeth Corker5,
  6. Usha Menon6,
  7. Lauren Matheson7,
  8. Jo Waller8
  1. 1Senior Research Associate, Gynaecological Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Women's Health, University College London, London, UK
  2. 2Director, Gynaecological Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Women's Health, University College London, London, UK
  3. 3PhD Student, Gynaecological Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Women's Health, University College London, London, UK
  4. 4Research Associate, Gynaecological Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Women's Health, University College London, London, UK
  5. 5Research Assistant, Gynaecological Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Women's Health, University College London, London, UK
  6. 6Head, Gynaecological Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Women's Health, University College London, London, UK
  7. 7Research Assistant, Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK
  8. 8Senior Research Associate, Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Jo Waller, Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1–19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT, UK; j.waller{at}ucl.ac.uk

Abstract

Background The aim of the study was to develop and validate measures of awareness of symptoms and risk factors for ovarian and cervical cancer (Ovarian and Cervical Cancer Awareness Measures).

Methods Potentially relevant items were extracted from the literature and generated by experts. Four validation studies were carried out to establish reliability and validity. Women aged 21–67 years (n=146) and ovarian and cervical cancer experts (n=32) were included in the studies. Internal reliability was assessed psychometrically. Test-retest reliability was assessed over a 1-week interval. To establish construct validity, Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) scores of cancer experts were compared with equally well-educated comparison groups. Sensitivity to change was tested by randomly assigning participants to read either a leaflet giving information about ovarian/cervical cancer or a leaflet with control information, and then completing the ovarian/cervical CAM.

Results Internal reliability (Cronbach's α=0.88 for the ovarian CAM and α=0.84 for the cervical CAM) and test-retest reliability (r=0.84 and r=0.77 for the ovarian and cervical CAMs, respectively) were both high. Validity was demonstrated with cancer experts achieving higher scores than controls [ovarian CAM: t(36)= –5.6, p<0.001; cervical CAM: t(38)= –3.7, p=0.001], and volunteers who were randomised to read a cancer leaflet scored higher than those who received a control leaflet [ovarian CAM: t(49)=7.5, p<0.001; cervical CAM: t(48)= –5.5, p<0.001].

Conclusions This study demonstrates the psychometric properties of the ovarian and cervical CAMs and supports their utility in assessing ovarian and cervical cancer awareness in the general population.

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/jfprhc-2011-100118

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    Footnotes

    • Funding The Ovarian CAM was developed with funding from Ovarian Cancer Action, The Eve Appeal, Ovacome and Target Ovarian Cancer. The Cervical CAM was developed by the UCL Health Behaviour Research Centre, in collaboration with the Department of Health Cancer Team and The Eve Appeal, with funding from The Eve Appeal. It forms part of the Cervical Cancer Awareness and Symptoms Initiative (CCASI). They are based on a generic CAM developed by Cancer Research UK, University College London, King's College London and Oxford University in 2007–2008. Alice Simon, Jane Wardle, Chloe Grimmett, Emily Power, Elizabeth Corker, Lauren Matheson and Jo Waller are/were funded by Cancer Research UK. Usha Menon is supported by MRC/Cancer Research UK/The Eve Appeal/NIHR UCLH/UCL Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Ethical approval The authors corresponded with University College London ethics committee regarding this series of studies and they were deemed exempt from ethical approval requirements.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.