Patients' and health care professionals' evaluation of health-related quality of life issues in bone metastases.
The objective of this study was to examine the agreement between health care professionals' (HCPs) and patients' evaluation of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) issues for cancer patients with bone metastases. A total of 413 patients and 152 HCPs were interviewed across five centres worldwide. Mean scores were almost always higher for HCPs than for patients. Patients and HCPs agreed that four issues affect HRQOL of bone metastases patients profoundly: 'long-term (chronic) pain', 'difficulty in carrying out usual daily tasks', 'able to perform self-care' and 'able to perform role functioning'. A substantial difference was found with respect to the perceived importance of psychosocial and somatic issues. Patients emphasised psychosocial issues with a particular focus on 'worry' about loss of mobility, dependence on others and disease progression, HCPs however rated 'symptom' issues as more important, specifically those related to 'pain'. In conclusion, patients and HCPs agreed that pain and physical/role functioning are important to the HRQOL of cancer patients with bone metastases, but patients also emphasized the importance of psychosocial issues to HRQOL. This information has been an important component in the development of a health-related quality of life questionnaire for patients with bone metastases (EORTC QLQ-BM 22).
Harris
Kristin
K
Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5, Canada.
Chow
Edward
E
Zhang
Liying
L
Velikova
Galina
G
Bezjak
Andrea
A
Wu
Jackson
J
Barton
Michael
M
Sezer
Orhan
O
Eek
Richard
R
Shafiq
Jesmin
J
Yee
Albert
A
Clemons
Mark
M
Brundage
Michael
M
Hoskin
Peter
P
van der Linden
Yvette
Y
Johnson
Colin D
CD
Bottomley
Andrew
A
D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001315:Australia; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000556:secondary*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D002170:Canada; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009101:Multiple Myeloma / Q000473:pathology; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012648:Self Care / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires