Validity and reliability of the Swedish version of the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS): an instrument for the evaluation of symptom prevalence, characteristics, and distress.
There are few scales in Swedish that assess symptoms in the dimensions of frequency, severity, and distress.
The purpose of this study was to translate and determine the validity and reliability of the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS) in a Swedish population of postmenopausal women newly diagnosed with primary or recurrent breast cancer.
The original 32-item MSAS, a self-report measure for assessing symptom distress and frequency in cancer patients, was translated and administered to 206 patients (primary, n = 150 and recurrent, n = 56).
The MSAS psychological symptom subscale correlated with the emotional and cognitive functioning subscales of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30), and showed the highest correlation with the EORTC QLQ-C30 emotional functioning subscale (r = -0.78; P