title: Health-related quality of life in survivors of tumours of the central nervous system in childhood--a preference-based approach to measurement in a cross-sectional study.
abstract: There is an evident need to measure the comprehensive burden of morbidity experienced by survivors of brain tumours in childhood. To this end, a questionnaire based on the Health Utilities Index mark 2 (HUI2) and mark 3 (HUI3) systems was completed independently for a cohort of such children by their parents, by a nurse, by physicians and by a selected group of the children themselves. Each of the HUI2 and HUI3 systems consists of a multi-attribute health status classification scheme linked to a preference function which provides utility scores for levels within single attributes (domains of health) and for global health states. All eligible families (n = 44) participated. Even cognitively impaired children of at least 9.5 years of age could complete the questionnaire. The greatest burden of morbidity, occurring in two-thirds of children, was in the attribute of cognition. Surprisingly, almost one-third of children experienced pain. Global health status was lowest in children who underwent radiotherapy before the age of 5 years and the corresponding utility scores were related inversely to the volume irradiated. Children with demonstrable disease had lower scores than those in whom disease was not evident. There was a high level of agreement (intraclass correlation coefficients > 0.5) on formal assessment of inter-rater reliability for global health-related quality of life utility scores. The usefulness of measures of health status and health-related quality of life, in children surviving brain tumours, has been demonstrated by this study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. rbarr@fhs.csu.mcmaster.ca
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Barr
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Whitton
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rush
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Furlong
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Feeny
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016019:Survival Analysis; D017741:Survivors