Validation of the Castilian version of Powe’s Fatalism Inventory in a Mexican population with cancer

Abstract

Objective: To validate the Spanish version of Powe’s Fatalism Inventory (SPFI) in Mexican population with cancer.Method: The SPFI was applied to 133 women with breast cancer. A factorial analysis with Oblimin rotation was conducted, Then, the internal consistency was evaluated with the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient and finally, correlation analyses among the questionnaire factors were conducted. The final instrument was named Spanish Powe Fatalism Inventory-Cancer (IFPE-C). Results: Seven of the original 15 items were eliminated and eight were retained, all with factor loads greater than 0.40. We obtained a structure of three factors that explained 73.7% of the variance and were called: Uselessness of the treatment with α = 0.85, Predestination with α = 0.918 and Thoughts of death with α = 0.73. The internal consistency for the global scale was α = 0.80. Statistically significant correlations were obtained between the factors. Conclusion: the IFPE-C proved to be a valid and reliable instrument that can be used both in clinical and research settings to identify fatalistic beliefs about cancer of patients.