Purpose: To investigate the applicability of a standard quality of life (QL) questionnaire to individual cancer patients and to explore the potential for impact of QL information on the process of care by comparing at group level the QL results with the medical records.
Patients and methods: One hundred fourteen consecutive patients at the oncology clinics at St James's Hospital, Leeds, United Kingdom, completed the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ)-C30 on a touch-screen computer over a 6-month period. The QL results were compared with the corresponding medical records at individual and group level.
Results: For individual patients, the serial measurement of QL allowed recognition of patterns over time corresponding to disease course. At group level, a higher proportion of patients reported problems on EORTC QLQ-C30 than were mentioned in the medical records (McNemar paired test, P <.01). Most often clinicians mentioned pain (22% to 39%), and at the initial visit role (66%), and social issues (77%). For the rest of the symptoms and functions, the problems were recorded in between 1% and 25% of the notes, but 20% to 76% of the patients reported QL impairment. Problems that were not recorded in the medical notes tended to be of low severity, with a significant trend observed for pain, fatigue, nausea/vomiting, dyspnea, loss of appetite, and physical function scale (chi(2) test, 11.55 to 34.42, df = 1, P <.001).
Conclusion: The QL data on individual patients was consistent with the clinical records, thus providing evidence for the validity of these measures in assessment of the individual. The QL profiles had more information on symptoms and particularly on functional issues, such as emotional distress and physical performance.