title: Quality of life and illness perceptions in patients with recently diagnosed head and neck cancer.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Unit, Leiden University Medical Center, PO Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands. m.scharloo@lumc.nl
authors.forename: Margreet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scharloo
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Baatenburg de Jong
authors.forename: Ton P M
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Langeveld
authors.forename: Els
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van Velzen-Verkaik
authors.forename: Margreet M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Doorn-op den Akker
authors.forename: Adrian A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Kaptein
mesh_terms: 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