scoreFACT_L: Score the FACT-L
In raybaser/FACTscorer: Scores the FACT and FACIT Family of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures

scoreFACT_L

R Documentation

Score the FACT-L

Description

Generates all of the scores of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Lung Cancer (FACT-L, v4) from item responses.

Usage

scoreFACT_L(
  df,
  id = NULL,
  AConly = FALSE,
  updateItems = FALSE,
  keepNvalid = FALSE
)

Arguments

`df`	A data frame with the questionnaire items, appropriately-named.
`id`	(optional) The quoted name of a variable in `df` with a unique value for each row of `df`. If an `id` variable is provided here, it will also be included with the scale scores in the output data frame. This can facilitate accurate merging of the scale scores back into the input `df`.
`AConly`	(optional) Logical, if omitted or set to `FALSE` (the default) then the function will expect `df` to contain the FACT-General items as well as the more specific "Additional Concerns" (AC) items. If `TRUE`, then the function will only find the AC items in `df`, and will only score the subscale(s) produced by the AC items.
`updateItems`	(optional) Logical, if `TRUE` then updated versions of the items (i.e., re-coded for score calculation) will be returned in the output data frame with the scale scores. The default, `FALSE`, does not save any updated versions of the items in the resulting data frame. Most users will want to omit this argument or, equivalently, set it to `FALSE`.
`keepNvalid`	(optional) Logical, if `TRUE` then the output data frame will have additional variables containing the number of valid, non-missing responses from each respondent to the items on a given scale (see Details). If `FALSE` (the default), these variables will not be in the returned data frame. Most users will want to omit this argument or, equivalently, set it to `FALSE`.

Details

Given a data frame that includes all of the FACT-L (Version 4) items as variables, appropriately named, this function generates all of the FACT-L scale scores. It is crucial that the item variables in the supplied data frame are named according to FACT conventions. For example, the first physical well-being item should be named GP1, the second GP2, and so on. Please refer to the materials provided by http://www.facit.org for the particular questionnaire you are using. In particular, refer to the left margin of the official questionnaire (i.e., from facit.org) for the appropriate item variable names.

This questionnaire consists of two components: (1) FACT-G items and (2) "Additional Concerns" items. The FACT-G items (G for General) measure general aspects of QoL common to all cancer patients. The "Additional Concerns" items measure issues relevant for a specific cancer type, treatment, or symptom. These two questionnaire components are typically administered together. In some studies, however, ONLY the "Additional Concerns" items are administered. The AConly argument is provided to accommodate such cases, and should be set to AConly = TRUE if ONLY the "Additional Concerns" items were administered.

For more details on the updateItems and keepNvalid arguments, see the documentation entry for scoreFACTG and FACTscorer.

Value

A data frame with the following scale scores is returned:

PWB - Physical Well-Being subscale
SWB - Social/Family Well-Being subscale
EWB - Emotional Well-Being subscale
FWB - Physical Well-Being subscale
FACTG - FACT-G Total Score (PWB+SWB+EWB+FWB)
LCS - Lung Cancer subscale
FACT_L_TOTAL - FACT-L Total Score (PWB+SWB+EWB+FWB+LCS)
FACT_L_TOI - FACT-L Trial Outcome Index (PWB+FWB+LCS)

If AConly = TRUE, the only scale score returned is LCS.

If a variable was given to the id argument, then that variable will also be in the returned data frame. Additional, relatively unimportant, variables will be returned if updateItems = TRUE or keepNvalid = TRUE.

Note

Keep in mind that this function (and R in general) is case-sensitive.

All items in df should be numeric (i.e., of type integer or double).

This function expects missing item responses to be coded as NA, 8, or 9, and valid item responses to be coded as 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4. Any other value for any of the items will result in an error message and no scores.

References

FACT-L Scoring Guidelines, available at http://www.facit.org

Cella, D.F., Bonomi, A.E., Lloyd S.R., Tulsky, D.S., Kaplan, E., & Bonomi, P. (1995). Reliability and validity of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Lung (FACT-L) quality of life instrument. Lung Cancer, 12, 199-220.

Cella, D., Eton, D., Fairclough, D.L., Bonomi, P., Heyes, A., Silberman, C., Wolf, M.K., & Johnson, D.H. (2002). What is a clinically meaningful change on the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) questionnaire? Results from Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Study 5592. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 55, 285-295.

Cella, D.F., Bonomi, A.E., Lloyd S., Tulsky, D., Bonomi, P., & Kaplan, E. (1994). Reliability and validity of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) quality of life instrument. Lung Cancer, 11(Suppl 1), 89 (Abstract #336).

Cella, D.F. (1995). The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) quality of life instrument. In R.J. Gralla & C.M. Moinpour (Eds): Assessing Quality of Life in Patients with Lung Cancer: A Guide for Clinicians. New York: NCM Publishers, Inc.

Butt, Z., Webster, K., Eisenstein, A.R., Beaumont, J., Eton, D., Masters, G.A., & Cella, D. (2005). Quality of life in lung cancer: The validity and cross-cultural applicability of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung scale. Hematol Oncol Clin N Am, 19, 389-420.