Evaluation of the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire: A comparison with SF-36 Health Survey in a cohort of Italian long-survival cancer patients

Background: Despite the large amount of data available about the EORTCQLQ-C30 questionnaire, there have been very few studies focussed onlong-survival cancer patients, and no data are available on its performancein the Italian setting.Patients and methods: Within the framework of a project aimed atevaluating the characteristics of available HR-QOL questionnaires in theItalian language, the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire together with the ShortForm 36-item Health Survey (SF-36) were mail-administered to a sample ofpatients previously recruited in two large multicenter randomized clinicaltrials on early breast and colon cancers. The properties of thequestionnaire were evaluated using standard psychometric techniques andcorrelation analyses with demographic and clinical independent variables.Results: In the sample of patients who sent back the questionnaires underevaluation, the EORTC QLQ-C30 showed satisfactory acceptability (responserate = 64% and very low prevalence of missing at item and scalelevel), and the psychometric analyses confirmed the multi-dimensionalconceptualisation in terms of convergent and discriminant validity.Moreover, EORTC QLQ-C30 scales showed substantial correlation with thehomologous SF-36 scales. Few socio-demographic (age, gender, schooling) andclinical (type of cancer disease) variables were associated with HR-QOL.Breast cancer patients reported, on average, worse physical health-relatedscores, but after adjustment for age and education, most of the differencesdisappeared.Conclusions: These findings confirm the validity and robustness of theEORTC QLQ-C30 in this sample of long-survival Italian cancer patients. Furtherad hoc validation studies are required to evaluate its significance in theseparticular patients.