Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation
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To determine how health related quality of life (HRQL) is perceived by patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and chronic low back pain (CLBP) using a textual analysis approach. ⋯ A series of characteristic answers on HRQL may be identified in patients with RA and CLBP, showing that they have different perceptions about what HRQL is according to their pathology. The use of open questions in a group of homogenous patients with specific pathologies could result in more disease-specific responses. Textual statistical analysis of open questions may provide more information than standard methods, and may be considered as valid for the analysis of subjective issues such as quality of life.
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The objective of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Thai version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) version 3.0. The questionnaire was completed by 310 cancer patients during their follow-up at 2 teaching hospital oncology clinics. About 70% of participants had advanced stage of cancer and 72% had been receiving chemotherapy. ⋯ The results suggested that the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General (FACT-G) measured different aspects of quality of life and should be independently used. Testing psychometric properties of the EORTC QLQ-C30 in heterogeneous diagnostic group yield similar results as found in homogeneous group. These results support that the EORTC QLQ-C30 (version 3.0) has proven to be a reliable and valid measure of the quality of life in Thai patients with various types of cancer.
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Two kinds of variables may be differentiated within instruments measuring health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Physical symptoms may be called causal variables because their occurrence can cause a change in HRQOL, but poor HRQOL need not necessarily imply that a patient suffers from these symptoms. Other items can be regarded as indicator variables. ⋯ The model-data fit was satisfactory. Results support the hypothesis that two kinds of variables may be differentiated within HRQOL instruments. Further research should investigate whether both kinds of variables could be combined into a higher order, aggregate score for HRQOL.
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In this study, we have translated and cross-culturally adapted the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) version 4 into Korean, and we have evaluated its reliability and validity. The FACT-L version 4 was translated into Korean following the standard Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) translation methodology. The psychometric properties of the FACT-L were evaluated in 122 lung cancer patients (mean age, 60.88 years). ⋯ In validating the FACT-L version 4, our results indicated high internal consistency of the FACT-L scales, with Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from 0.52 to 0.84. The FACT-L also demonstrated good convergent and divergent validity when correlated with the Functional Living Index-Cancer (FLIC) and the shortened forms of the Profile of Mood States (POMS). This reliable and valid instrument can now be used to properly evaluate the quality of life of Korean lung cancer patients.
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The growing interest in the mental health and quality of life of cancer patients, has been the major reason for conducting this study. The aims were to compare advanced cancer patients' responses to Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale with those to European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30, version 3.0), as well as the impact of quality of life dimensions (as measured by EORTC QLQ-C30) on the levels of anxiety and depression. ⋯ For anxiety, the predictor variables were physical, role, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning, followed by dyspnea, sleep disturbance, and appetite loss, while depression was predicted by physical, role, emotional, and social functioning, the symptoms of nausea-vomiting, pain, sleep disturbance, constipation, as well as the variables of age, gender, anticancer treatment and performance status. Concluding, psychological morbidity, in this patient population, was predominantly predicted by the emotional functioning dimension of EORTC QLQ-C30.