Quality of life and illness perceptions in patients with recently diagnosed head and neck cancer.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to investigate which illness perceptions of patients recently diagnosed with head and neck cancer explain variance in their quality of life (QOL) to identify potential targets for interventions aimed at improving QOL.


METHODS
Sixty-eight patients (mainly with stage III and IV disease) completed the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ-R) and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30).


RESULTS
Pretreatment cross-sectional results from this prospective study show that, after controlling for age and comorbidity, illness perceptions were significantly related to the QLQ-C30 physical, role, emotional, cognitive, social functioning, and global health subscales. Patients with increased attention to symptoms, who believed in a greater likelihood of recurrence, who were more likely to engage in self-blame, and who had a stronger emotional reaction to the illness had lower QOL scores.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that restructuring negative pretreatment illness perceptions may help patients to cope more adequately during and after treatment.
Scharloo
Margreet
M
Psychology Unit, Leiden University Medical Center, PO Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands. m.scharloo@lumc.nl
Baatenburg de Jong
Robert J
RJ
Langeveld
Ton P M
TP
van Velzen-Verkaik
Els
E
Doorn-op den Akker
Margreet M
MM
Kaptein
Adrian A
AA
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires