Psychometric validation of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Endometrial Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-EN24).
OBJECTIVE
A validation study was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire-Endometrial Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-EN24). This module was designed to assess disease and treatment specific aspects of the quality of life (QoL) of patients with endometrial cancer.


METHODS
Two hundred and sixty-eight women with endometrial cancer were recruited in different phases of treatment: after pelvic surgery (Group 1); during adjuvant chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy (Group 2); after completion of treatment (Group 3). Patients completed the EORTC QLQ-C30, the endometrial cancer module and a short debriefing questionnaire.


RESULTS
Multi-trait scaling analyses confirmed the hypothesised scale structure of the QLQ-EN24. Internal consistency reliability was good with Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from 0.74 to 0.86 (lymphoedema 0.80, urological symptoms 0.75, gastrointestinal symptoms 0.74, body image problems 0.86 and sexual/vaginal problems 0.86). Convergent and discriminant validity did not show any scaling errors for the subscales. The QLQ-EN24 module discriminated well between clinically different groups of patients. All items exhibited a high completion rate with less than 2% missing values except for the sexuality items (19%).


CONCLUSIONS
The validation study supports the reliability, the convergent and divergent validity of the EORTC QLQ-EN24. This newly developed QLQ-EN24 module is a useful instrument for the assessment of the QoL in patients treated for endometrial cancer in clinical trials.
Greimel
Elfriede
E
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria. elfriede.greimel@medunigraz.at
Nordin
Andy
A
Lanceley
Anne
A
Creutzberg
Carien L
CL
van de Poll-Franse
Lonneke V
LV
Radisic
Vesna Bjelic
VB
Galalae
Razvan
R
Schmalz
Claudia
C
Barlow
Ellen
E
Jensen
Pernille T
PT
Waldenström
Ann-Charlotte
AC
Bergmark
Karin
K
Chie
Wei-Chu
WC
Kuljanic
Karin
K
Costantini
Anna
A
Singer
Susanne
S
Koensgen
Dominique
D
Menon
Usha
U
Daghofer
Fedor
F
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017567:Karnofsky Performance Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*