title: Quality of life in patients of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: validation of the Taiwan Chinese version of the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the EORTC QLQ-H&N35.
abstract: The authors followed the guidelines of translation and pilot testing of the EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC-QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires. The questionnaires were given to 50 nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients under active treatment and 50 under follow-up at our institution from November 2000 to June 2001. A retest was conducted 2 weeks after the first interview/form completion for the follow-up group. The intraclass correlation coefficients of the two questionnaires were moderate to high in the follow-up group. Cronbach's alpha coefficients of all scales of the two questionnaires were > or = 0.70 except that of cognitive functioning. Correlation of scales measuring similar dimensions of the QLQ-C30 and the SF-36 were moderate to high, while that of the QLQ-H&N35 and the QLQ-C30 and the SF-36 were moderate to low. Patients in the active treatment group had more serious acute problems due to disease and chemotherapy. Patients in the follow-up group had more serious chronic problems due to radiation therapy. We concluded that the Taiwan Chinese version of the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the EORTC QLQ-H&N35 had moderate to high test-retest reliability, high internal consistency in most scales, and could show the expected differences between patients in active treatment and follow-up group.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Graduate Institute of Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. weichu@episerv.cph.ntu.edu.tw
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Chie
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Ting
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hsu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan