Factor Structure and Reliability of MOS Social Support Survey among Mexican Women with Breast Cancer

Background: Social Support (SS) has been an important variable to consider in the psychosocial understanding of patients with cancer. Objective: To test the 3-factor model for the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS SSS) and estimate its internal consistency reliability in Mexican women with Breast Cancer (BC). Methods: 300 women diagnosed with BC were enrolled in a convenience sampling. Participants were asked to complete the Spanish version of the MOS SSS (Argentina). After the approval of the Ethics and Research Review Board of Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, the Mexican adaptation was created through three phases: 1) linguistically adaptation; 2) presentation of the corrected and integrated version to another expert, and 3) pilot study. Results: The MOS SSS obtained a factorial structure with 13 items distributed among three factors. A high internal consistency (Alpha=0.912) and an acceptable explained-variance value (67%) were obtained; finally, the confirmatory analysis determined a proper adjustment with that structure. Conclusions: This instrument has adequate psychometric properties and is useful for evaluation and culturally appropriate to the clinical management of SS.