Psychological Resilience Scale for Cancer Patients: a Systematic Review Based on COSMIN Guidelines

Background The assessment of psychological resilience can facilitate an understanding of how patients utilize internal and external resources to adapt to adversities, traumas, significant life stressors, and disease treatment. At present, the unity of self-reported scales for assessing the psychological resilience of cancer patients remains controversial. Furthermore, it lacks the integration and standardized evaluation of scale measurement properties, and the selection of evaluation tools lacks evidence-based evidence. Objective To systematically assess the measurement properties of a psychological resilience evaluation tool for cancer patients and critically examine the study's methodological quality, therefore to provide a reference for healthcare professionals in selecting a high-quality assessment tool. Methods A systematic search of databases like PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, CNKI, VIP, CBM, and Wanfang Data was conducted for literature related to the evaluation of the measurement properties of the Cancer Psychological Resilience Scale. The search was done within the time frame of the database's creation to 2023-02-14. All identified articles were rated by two independent assessors following the COSMIN guidelines. Results Thirteen studies were included, and among the nine cancer psychological resilience tools were the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), the Resilience Scale Specific to Cancer (RS-SC), the 10-item Resilience Scale Specific to Cancer (RS-SC-10), the 14-item Resilience Scale (RS-14), the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), the SV-RES Resilience Scale (SV-RES), the Ego-Resiliency Scale (ER89-R12), the Pain Resilience Scale (PRS), and the Shift and Persist Questionnaire. All scales—aside from the RS-SC-10, which suggested a "C" because of its poor cross-cultural validity—were rated "B" because of their ambiguous content validity and differing levels of evidence. Conclusion This systematic review provides an overview of psychological resilience assessment tools used in cancer patients. The RS-SC stands out as being one of the most robust instruments for measuring psychological resilience in patients. Evidence needs to be generated and used in the clinical setting.