Scientists have drawn up the Spanish equivalent of the Cancer Worry Scale measurement for the first time.
The tool – Escala de Preocupación por el Cáncer (EPC) – is the first of its kind in the language and will help Spanish medics carry out genetic counselling tests.
A translation and a cultural adaptation of the Cancer Worry Scale, it comprises six questions that measure concern on a scale ranging from six (the least) to 24 (the highest level).
Esther Cabrera, director of the School of Health Sciences at the Mataró-Maresme Technocampus, in Barcelona, who led a study into the EPC, said the tool will enable healthcare professionals to help healthy patients who are unwilling to undergo preventive testing.
“On many occasions, their fears are related to their decision about whether or not to take preventive measures that would help them avoid cancer or diagnose it a very early stage,” says Cabrera.
The simplicity of the questions, which include “How worried are you about the possibility of developing cancer one day?", make it possible to measure the levels of concerns, she adds.
The study, published in Medicina Clínica, shows that the EPC is a valid and reliable scale for evaluating concern about cancer in healthy people.
Cabrera says one of the advantages of using the EPC is that it can be used in psychology, oncology or even general medicine.
"The scale can be used in primary healthcare as a filtering instrument among the healthy population to identify individuals with high levels of concern about cancer", she adds.
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