ORIGINAL ARTICLE Validation of the revised Bakas Caregiving Outcomes Scale in Greek caregivers of patients with advanced cancer receiving palliative radiotherapy Ourania Govina & Grigorios Kotronoulas & Kyriaki Mystakidou & Margarita Giannakopoulou & Antonios Galanos & Elisabeth Patiraki Received: 20 March 2012 / Accepted: 27 November 2012 / Published online: 14 December 2012 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012 Abstract Purpose Caregiver burden considerably affects the lives of families providing care to people with advanced cancer. The aim of this study was to validate the Greek translation of the revised Bakas Caregiving Outcomes Scale (BCOS) with a sample of informal caregivers of people with advanced cancer receiving outpatient palliative radiotherapy. Methods Following a formal “forward–backward” method to translate the original BCOS into Greek, the scale was administered to 100 consecutive family caregivers. Partic- ipants also completed the Greek Hospital Anxiety and De- pression Scale (G-HADS) and five quality-of-life related linear analogue scale assessment (LASA) scales. Validity and reliability analyses were performed. Results The Cronbach’ s α coefficient for the total BCOS score was 0.83. Test–retest reliability analysis in a subgroup of caregivers (n 0 40) revealed good short-term stability over a 2-week interval. Exploratory factor analysis generated a one-factor structure for the Greek translation, which was further confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis. Construct validity was supported through the scale’ s high correlations with G-HADS anxiety (-0.524; p <0.001) and depression (-0.533; p <0.001) scores, and LASA quality of life scores (0.696; p <0.001). The BCOS discriminated well between groups of caregivers with different levels of quality of life. A total score of 52.5 offered high sensitivity (91 %) and specificity (86 %) in detecting highly burdened caregivers. Conclusions The Greek version of the BCOS is a psychomet- rically sound instrument that can be usefully implemented into clinical practice to identify family caregivers in need for support, and stimulate relevant research in our country. Keywords Bakas Caregiving Outcomes Scale . Family caregiver . Caregiver burden . Advanced cancer . Reliability . Validity O. Govina Faculty of Nursing, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Agiou Spiridonos 28, 122 10 Athens, Greece G. Kotronoulas School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Dundee, 11 Airlie Place, Dundee DD1 4HJ, UK K. Mystakidou Pain Relief and Palliative Care Unit, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Korinthias 27, 115 26 Athens, Greece M. Giannakopoulou : E. Patiraki Faculty of Nursing, University of Athens, Papadiamantopoulou 123, 115 27 Athens, Greece A. Galanos Laboratory for the Research of Musculoskeletal System, “Th. Garofalidis” Orthopaedic Department, Medical School, University of Athens, “KAT” General Hospital, 145 61 Athens, Greece O. Govina (*) Faculty of Nursing, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Aristeidou 5, 153 51 Athens, Greece e-mail: ugovina@teiath.gr Support Care Cancer (2013) 21:1395–1404 DOI 10.1007/s00520-012-1681-7