title: Health related quality of life in patients with neuroendocrine tumors compared with the general Norwegian population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Health related quality of life (HRQoL) was characterized among patients with neuroendocrine tumor (NET) and compared with the general Norwegian population.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross sectional, comparative design was chosen, and the samples comprised 196 NET patients and 5,258 individuals from the general Norwegian population. We used Chi-square cross tab calculations to evaluate sociodemographic characteristics, T-tests for independent samples and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in order to compare HRQoL (SF-36) scores across a range of background variables. Furthermore, T-tests were used to analyze differences in HRQoL scores between the samples.
  
  
  RESULTS
  NET patients demonstrated significantly lower on all HRQoL subscales when compared with the general population with the lowest values on general health, physical limitation and vitality. Individuals above 70 years reported lower scores on physical functioning and physical limitations compared with those who were younger. Individuals with higher levels of education reported increased physical functioning compared with those with less education and full-time or part-time workers described higher physical functioning and less physical limitations compared with those who were retired.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  All SF-36 HRQoL scores were significantly lower among the NET patients when compared with the general population. Assistance from health personnel to NET patients should focus on those domains.
authors.affiliation: Medical Department, Rikshospitalet University Hospital HF, Oslo, Norway. trude.haugland@rikshospitalet.no
authors.forename: Trude
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Haugland
authors.forename: Morten H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Vatn
authors.forename: Marijke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Veenstra
authors.forename: Astrid Klopstad
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Wahl
authors.forename: Gerd Karin
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Natvig
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018278:Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires