Table 1 Description of quality of life instruments in long-term breast cancer survivors.
From: A systematic review of quality of life instruments in long-term breast cancer survivors
Instruments | Domains (Items) | Domain description | Ferrell's QoL domains * | Scaling & scoring/Administration | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ph. | Ps. | So. | Sp. | ||||
Disease-specific measures | |||||||
Body Image and Relationships Scale (BIRS) [14] | 3 (32) | Strength and health; Social barriers; Appearance and sexuality | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5-point Likert scale; 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Total and subscale score = summing all item scores. Higher score indicates greater impairment. Self-administered | |
Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System Cancer-Short Form (CARES-SF) [15] | 6 (59) | Global CARES-SF; Physical; Psychosocial; Medical interaction; Marital relationship; Sexual concerns | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5-point scale ranging from 0 ("not at all"; no problem) to 4 ("very much"; severe). Higher scores represent poorer QoL. Self-administered | |
European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC QLQ-C30) [16–18] | 10 (30) | Functional domains: Physical; Role; Emotional; Cognitive; Social; Global QoL Symptom domains: Fatigue; Nausea/vomiting; Pain Single-item domain: Dyspnea, appetite loss, sleep disturbance, constipation, diarrhoea | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Physical and role function, dichotomous (Yes/No); Global QoL, 7-point scale; Other items, 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very much). Scale scores = mean of item scores, rescaled to 0 to 100, with higher function subscale scores indicating less dysfunction and higher symptom subscale scores indicating more dysfunction. Self-administered, interviewer-administered. Time to administer: 15 min. | |
European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer-Breast Module (EORTC QLQ-BR23) [19] | 8 (23) | Body image; Sexual functioning; Arm symptoms; Breast symptoms; Sexual enjoyment; Systemic therapy side-effects; Future perspective; Upset by hair loss | ✓ | 4-point scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very much). Scale scores = mean of item scores, rescaled to 0 to 100. Self-administered, interviewer-administered | |||
Ferrans and Powers's Quality of Life Index-Cancer Version (QLI-CV) [20] | 2 (70) | Satisfaction with various domains of life (Part 1): Health and functioning; Socioeconomic; Psychological/spiritual; Family Importance of the same domains to the subject (Part 2): Health and functioning; Socioeconomic; Psychological/spiritual; Family | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 6 (very satisfied) for PART 1, and 1 (very unimportant) to 6 (very important) for PART 2. Overall & Subscale scores range from 0 to 30. Higher scores indicate better QoL. Self-administered, interviewer-administered |
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) [21] | 7 (44) | Emotional well-being; Functional well-being; Physical well-being; Social/family well-being; Relationship with doctor; Breast cancer subscale; Additional concerns | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5-point Likert scale; 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much). Total FACT-B score has a range of 0 to 144. Self-administered. Time to administer: 10 min. | |
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) [22] | 5 (28) | Emotional well-being; Functional well-being; Physical well-being; Social/family well-being; Relationship with doctor | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5-point Likert scale; 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much). Item scores are summed to form overall and subscale scores. Higher scores indicate less dysfunction. Self-administered. Time to administer: 5 min. | |
Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well Being Scale (FACIT-SP) [23] | 2 (12) | Faith; Purpose | ✓ | 5-point scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much). Higher scores indicate stronger spiritual beliefs. Self-administered, interviewer-administered | |||
Quality of life-Cancer Survivor (QOL-CS) [24] | 4 (41) | Physical well-being; Psychological well-being; Social well-being; Spiritual well-being | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Visual analog scale ranging from 0 (worst) to 1 (best). Average of Scores (Overall & Subscale scores range from 0 to 1). Higher scores indicate better QoL. Self-administered, interviewer-administered |
Quality of Life in Adult Cancer Survivors Scale (QLACS) [25] | 12 (47) | Generic domains: Physical pain; Negative feelings; Positive feelings; Cognitive problems; Sexual problems; Social avoidance; Fatigue Cancer-specific domains: Distress about family; Distress about recurrence; Appearance concerns; Benefits of cancer; Financial problems resulting from cancer | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Each item score range from 1 (Never) to 7 (Always). Scores for each domain are the sum (after appropriate reverse scoring) of the individual item scores. Domain scores range from 4-28 points. Higher scores represent poorer QoL. Self-administered |
Condition-specific measures | |||||||
Fatigue Symptom Inventory (FSI) [26] | 3 (13) | Intensity of fatigue; Interference of fatigue; Fatigue duration | ✓ | Visual analog scale, 0 to 10. Intensity of fatigue (0 = not at all fatigued and 10 = extreme fatigue); Interference of fatigue (0 = no interference and 10 = extreme interference); Fatigue duration (0 = none of the day and 10 = the entire day). Scores range from 0-96. Higher scores indicating greater impact of fatigue. Self-administered | |||
Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory (MFSI) [27] | 5 (83) | Global fatigue; Somatic symptoms; Affective symptoms; Behavioral symptoms; Cognitive symptoms | ✓ | 5-point scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely). Self-administered, interviewer-administered Time to administer: 5-10 min. | |||