The addition of mood and anxiety domains to the University of Washington quality of life scale.
BACKGROUND
There are numerous head and neck specific quality of life questionnaires, each having its own merits and disadvantages. The University of Washington questionnaire has been widely used and is notable by the inclusion of a shoulder dysfunction domain, domain importance ratings, and patient free text. It is short, simple to process, and provides clinically relevant information. However, it has lacked any psychological dimension of quality of life. The aim of this study was to report the inclusion of two psychological domains (mood, anxiety) to the most recent refinement of the questionnaire (version 3).


METHODS
A cross-sectional survey was performed in April 2000. Questionnaires were sent to 183 patients alive and disease free after surgery for oral and oro-pharyngeal malignancy. Replies were received from 145 patients (79% response rate).


RESULTS
The new domains (mood and anxiety) correlated significantly with the emotional functioning domains from the EORTC C30 and with the pain and appearance domains of UW-QOL. There were also significant correlations between the "global quality of life" item and the two new domains. Mood (p =.005) and anxiety (p <.001) scores were associated with patient age but with no other clinicodemographic variable.


CONCLUSIONS
The addition of mood and anxiety domains makes the UW-QOL version 4 a single broad measure suitable for effective health-related quality of life evaluation in the routine clinical setting.
Consultant and Honorary Reader, Regional Maxillofacial Unit, University Hospital Aintree, Fazakerley, Liverpool L9 1AL United Kingdom. snrongers@globalnet.co.uk
Simon N
SN
Rogers
Suzanne
S
Gwanne
Derek
D
Lowe
Gerry
G
Humphris
Beven
B
Yueh
Ernest A
EA
Weymuller
D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000601:surgery*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D010610:Pharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires