Development and Validation of the Return‐to‐Work Family Support Assessment Questionnaire for Cancer Survivors in China

Family support plays a vital role in cancer survivors' return-to-work process. However, there's currently no effective method to measure the level of family support. This study aimed to develop the return-to-work family support assessment questionnaire following standardized questionnaire development procedures. Data collection was conducted between June 2023 and November 2024 at two large general hospitals in Jiangsu Province, China. Questionnaire development and validation was divided into three research phases. Firstly, a systematic literature review, semi-structured interviews, Delphi expert consultations, content validity analysis and a small-sample pretest were conducted, which led to the refinement of the initial questionnaire items. Secondly, a pilot study with 266 participants was conducted, using exploratory factor analysis to uncover the underlying factor structure within the data. Finally, 273 participants were conveniently sampled for the formal survey to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire, while confirmatory factor analysis was employed to validate the questionnaire's structural validity. The final questionnaire comprised three dimensions, totaling 18 items. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three common factors, accounting for a cumulative variance of 61.09%. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated a stable factor structure for the questionnaire, demonstrating good model fit. The questionnaire-content validity index was 0.920, the overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.922, and the 2-week test-retest reliability was 0.816. The questionnaire exhibited good reliability and validity, serving as an effective measurement tool for assessing and quantitatively analyzing the level of return-to-work family support for cancer survivors.