OBJECTIVES

: This study was performed in order to translate, adapt to the local culture and validate the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support for cancer patient

METHODS

: The study was initially performed by translating the original questionnaire using forward and backward translation method. Thirty convenient samples of cancer patients from Margono public hospital, Purwokerto, Indonesia were included in the initial phase of the study in order to evaluate the validity and reliability of the translated questionnaire. Convergent validity (using factor analysis), discriminant validity (using Pearson correlation) and reliability test were performed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the translated questionnaire.

RESULTS

: According to factor analysis, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy showed that the results is valid (0.668) while the Bartlett's Test of Sphericity also showed that the number of samples were adequate (0.668) and eligible for factor analysis. The Measures of Sampling Adequancy from each question was considerably higher than 0.5 and therefore there were no translated question that has to be removed in the analysis. There were 3 out of 12 factors that was included with the total variance of 81.166%. The Pearson’s correlation and Chronbach Alpha tests showed that discriminant validity and reliability test of the translated questionnaire were valid (>0.400) and reliable (>0.700) tool.

CONCLUSIONS

: Although there some cultural adaptation were required in the forward translation process, the translated version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support questionnaire was considerably a valid and reliable tool to evaluate the level of social support for cancer patients in Indonesia.