Abstract
BACKGROUND: Skin cancer commonly occurs on areas that are salient to body image perception (i.e., head and neck). Patients with head and neck skin cancer (HNSC) may experience negative body image perceptions related to their disease, which is concerning, given the numerous negative sequelae of poor body image. However, there are no existing disease-specific measures of body image concerns in HNSC. OBJECTIVE To develop and examine the psychometric properties of a brief self-report, disease-specific measure of body image concerns in patients with HNSC-the Body Image Questionnaire (BIQ). MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients with HNSC completed the BIQ before (n = 239) and 6 months after (n = 80) treatment with Mohs micrographic surgery. Analyses examined the internal consistency, convergent validity, and factor structure of the BIQ. RESULTS Internal consistency reliability was acceptable, and the measure demonstrated convergent validity with well-being. Four dimensions underlie the BIQ: appearance satisfaction, appearance avoidance, head/neck/skin-specific dissatisfaction, and perceived change. CONCLUSION The BIQ is a valid and internally reliable disease-specific instrument that measures body image concerns in patients with HNSC.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 17-24 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Dermatologic Surgery |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors thank Scott W. Fosko, MD for consulting on this project and for his assistance with developing items for the study questionnaire.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, Inc. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
