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Objectives/purpose: Breast cancer treatment often results in disfigurement which can vastly alter one’s body image and negatively impact quality of life. In this context, the Body Image Scale (BIS) was developed as a standardized self-report questionnaire to assess affective, behavioral, and cognitive body image changes in patients with cancer. Even though it is the most frequently used instrument for assessing body image, so far it has not been validated in Croatia. Therefore, this study aimed to examine its factor structure, reliability, and discriminant validity on a sample of Croatian breast cancer patients. Methods: Participants were 325 women (age range 31-83 years, mean age of 59 years, sd=10.95) recruited between 2009 and 2013 from two large tertiary institutions in a cross-sectional study at four points of adjuvant treatment (two weeks after primary surgery, during adjuvant chemotherapy, adjuvant radiotherapy, and at a 6- month follow- up). Basic socio-demographic and medical data were also collected (age, body mass index, surgery type). Results: A confirmatory factor analyses was conducted in the Mplus 8.3 software in order to examine the one factor structure of the scale. The CFA showed a good fit, confirming the original unidimensional structure of the BIS (χ2(df) = 96.67 (35), RMSEA = .07, CFI = .95, SRMR = .04). The internal consistency for the scale was high (α = .92). Next, it was negatively correlated with age (r = - .24, p < .01), and not correlated with body mass index (r = - .03, p > .05). Differences in BIS scores were also found between women who underwent a conserving and radical surgery, with latter having higher scores (F=3, 56, p |
