Development and validation of the body image scale among Thai breast cancer patients.

To examine the psychometric property of the Thai version of the Body Image Scale (BIS) in breast cancer patients in Thailand.The authors conducted a cross-culture translation of the BIS into the Thai language and administered it to 242 breast cancer patients who had surgery and had completed chemo-radiation for more than one year.The present study confirmed a good reliability and validity of Thai version of BIS. The questionnaire has high internal and external consistency; Cronbach's alpha was above 0.8 and test-retest reliability was more than 0.7. Content validity was confirmed by expert opinion and cognitive interview with breast cancer patients. Construct validity was examined though factor analysis showed a single-factor solution which excludes one item from the original 10-item scale. Discriminant validity which confirmed by different score between mastectomy and breast conserving surgery group and good response prevalence also supported the clinical validity of the test.Thai version of the BIS showed a good psychometric property and can be used as a patient-physician communication and quality of life evaluation tool after breast cancer treatment in Thai women.