Objective To test the reliability and validity of the Chinese Version of Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale(WEMWBS) in cancer patients.

Methods A total of 1 105 cancer patients were investigated using WEMWBS, fatigue scale-14 and well-being index.

Results Both WEMWBS-14 and WEMWBS-7 were single-dimensional scales, with 14 and 7 items, and the critical ratios ranged from 20.813 to 29.173 and 21.278 to 30.338, respectively.The correlation coefficients between the scores of each item and total score of the scale ranged from 0.756 to 0.829 and 0.790 to 0.829, respectively.The similarity scores of all items ranged from 0.565 to 0.687 and 0.616 to 0.700, respectively.One common factor was extracted from exploratory factor analysis, and the total interpretation rates were 62.155% and 65.496%, respectively.The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the model was basically fit, the internal consistency coefficients were 0.953 and 0.911, the test-retest reliability after two weeks were 0.733 and 0.710, and the split-half reliability coefficient were 0.806 and 0.712, respectively.

Conclusions Both WEMWBS-14 and WEMWBS-7 have good reliability and validity in cancer patients, and WEMWBS-7 can be used as a mental well-being assessment tool with high feasibility, less time and high efficiency for cancer patients.