title: Is performance status associated with symptom scores? A population-based longitudinal study among cancer outpatients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Symptom scores and performance status are both important measures for patients with cancer. However, since performance status is not often part of routinely collected data, there is interest in exploring whether it can be calculated from symptom scores.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a population-based longitudinal study of cancer outpatients in Ontario, Canada in the year following their cancer diagnosis and among the subset of patients during the last year of their lives.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the first year after diagnosis, there was a significant relationship between performance status and fatigue and appetite; fatigue and well-being had a significant association with performance status in the last year of life. In both periods, the associations, although statistically significant, were not large enough to be clinically meaningful.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Performance status is an important measurement that cannot be substituted or captured with symptom scores; it is important for healthcare providers to record performance scores on a regular basis.
authors: Rinku
authors: R
authors: Sutradhar
authors: Clare
authors: C
authors: Atzema
authors: Hsien
authors: H
authors: Seow
authors: Craig
authors: C
authors: Earle
authors: Joan
authors: J
authors: Porter
authors: Doris
authors: D
authors: Howell
authors: Deborah
authors: D
authors: Dudgeon
authors: Lisa
authors: L
authors: Barbera
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D017567:Karnofsky Performance Status / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality; D009864:Ontario; D010045:Outpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D063189:Symptom Assessment; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult