Psychometric Properties of the Spanish Version of Breast Cancer and Lymphedema Symptom Experience Index.

Aim: to translate and evaluate psychometric properties of the BCLE SEI Spanish version among Spanish-speaking breast cancer patients in Spain. Methods: cross-sectional, known-group comparison, and test-retest study design. To ensure the semantic equivalence and content validity, an integrative translation method was employed to translate the English version into Spanish. 286 patients were recruited, from 2018 to 2020, from the Asturias Central University Hospital, Spain. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest reliability, and factor analysis, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: No semantic modifications to items were needed. The Spanish version of the instrument demonstrated excellent reliability (Cronbach's alpha= 0.93–0.97) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.78 – 0.87, n = 29). A significant difference was observed between the lymphedema group and non-lymphedema group (p < 0.001) in terms of total scale, symptom occurrence (p < 0.001), symptom distress of physical-functional (p <0.001), and psychosocial dimension (p <0.001). Factor analysis for symptom occurrence revealed a unidimensional factor and two factors were identified in symptom distress factor, which explained 45.71% and 54.77% of the total sample variance, respectively. Conclusions: This study provided initial evidence to support the psychometric properties and patient acceptance of the BCLE SEI Spanish version.