title: Psychometric properties of the QLQ-C30 (version 3.0) in a sample of ambulatory Cretan cancer patients.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to test the psychometric properties of the Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30, version 3.0) in a sample of ambulatory cancer patients, mostly low educated and coming from rural areas of the island of Crete. The sample consisted of 188 lung, breast and colorectal cancer patients. Their quality of life (QoL) has been evaluated twice: before and after the first therapeutic intervention. Alpha coefficients ranged from 0.88 to 0.98. Inter-scale correlations were more substantial between the physical, role and fatigue scales. Mean score differences between groups of patients with different performance status (PS) were statistically significant for most of the sub-scales. Instead the patients with stable PS after treatment showed worse functioning in five from the nine sub-scales. For those whose PS has deteriorated, their subjective evaluation indicated deterioration only for physical, role and social functioning. In this sample of mainly ambulatory cancer patients, the instrument has high coefficients of reliability and good clinical validity. However, the results related to its sensitivity are not very consistent. It has proven able to detect clinically significant changes after the therapeutic intervention only for the patients who deteriorated over time and for three specific dimensions of QoL: physical, role and social functioning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Work, Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Heraklion, Greece. koukouli@seyp.teiher.gr
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koukouli
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stamou
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alegakis
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Georgoulias
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Samonis
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*