Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Chinese version of the taste and smell survey for cancer patients.

PURPOSE: To translate and culturally adapt the Taste and Smell Survey (TSS) in Chinese for cancer patients and assess its reliability and validity, and to provide a reference for clinical professionals to evaluate taste and smell alterations (TSAs) in cancer patients.

METHODS

With authorization from the original authors, the survey was translated and back-translated following the standard procedure to generate the Chinese version of the TSS. 271 patients were enrolled from a tertiary hospital in China under treatment between January 2023 and February 2024 using a convenience sampling method for reliability and validity testing of the translated scale.

RESULTS

The overall Cronbach's α for the Chinese version of the TSS was 0.872. Cronbach's α for individual items ranged from 0.844 to 0.897. Content Validity Indices (I-CVI) for individual items ranged from 0.833 to 1.000, and the Average Scale-level Content Validity Index (S-CVI/Ave) was 0.972. All indices calculated in the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were presented as follows: χ²/df = 3.446, the Goodness-of-fit Index (GFI) = 0.902, the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.946, the Incremental Fit Index (IFI) = 0.946, the Tucker‒Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.930, the Root Mean Square Residual (RMR) = 0.054, and the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.095. All of the above results indicated good validity and reliability of the Chinese version of the TSS.

CONCLUSION

The study has confirmed that the Chinese version of the TSS is a concise and effective tool that is easy to administer and demonstrates strong scientific quality, reliability, validity, and feasibility. It is expected to help clinical professionals provide evidence-based interventions related to TSAs in cancer patients undergoing treatments in the Chinese cultural context.