Developing the Breast Utility Instrument to Assess Health-Related Quality of Life and Preferences in Patients with Breast Cancer

This research aimed to develop the Breast Utility Instrument (BUI), a breast cancer-specific preference-based tool to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with breast cancer. The study involved three phases: a literature review to establish a framework for developing condition-specific instruments, confirmatory factor analysis of responses from 408 breast cancer patients to identify a 10-dimension structure, and Rasch analysis to select one item per dimension based on various criteria. The resulting 10 items cover aspects such as physical, emotional, and social functioning, pain, fatigue, body image, and treatment side effects like hair loss. The BUI is intended to guide clinical decisions and health policy by incorporating patient and community preferences, with future research needed to validate and refine the instrument.