An investigation of anxiety about radiotherapy deploying the Radiotherapy Categorical Anxiety Scale

Background Radiotherapy is one of the major methods for treating cancer, but many patients undergoing radiotherapy have deep concerns about receiving radiation treatment. This problem is not generally appreciated and has not been adequately studied. Methods The objective of this investigation was to empirically investigate the anxieties that cancer patients feel towards radiotherapy by using questionnaires to classify and quantitatively measure their concerns. A preliminary interview to develop a questionnaire was carried out with 48 patients receiving radiotherapy to discover their anxieties about on-going treatments. Subsequently, a main study was performed using a questionnaire with 185 patients to classify their types of anxiety and to ascertain the reliability and validity of the responses. Confirmatory factor analysis was then carried out with a 17-item Radiotherapy Categorical Anxiety Scale. Results Three anxiety factors were abstracted by factor analysis: (1) adverse effects of radiotherapy, (2) environment of radiotherapy, and (3) treatment effects of radiotherapy. Reliability, content validity, and concurrent validity were obtained. The adequacy of the three-factor model of anxiety concerning radiotherapy was confirmed. Conclusion A 17-item Radiotherapy Categorical Anxiety Scale was formulated to quantitatively measure the specific types of anxiety among cancer patients receiving radiotherapy.