The development and validation of a quality-of-life questionnaire for head and neck cancer patients with enteral feeding tubes: the QOL-EF

Abstract

Purpose: To develop a questionnaire that measures the impact of enteral feeding tubes (EFTs) on the quality of life (QOL) of head and neck cancer (HNC) patients

Methods: The development of the questionnaire (QOL-EF) was done in four phases. Phase 1-3 included: (1) literature review and consultation with an expert focus group (item generation), (2) pilot-testing in 12 patients and, (3) judgmental item reduction. In phase 4, the QOL-EF, FACT-H&N, and UW-QOL were administered to a cross-sectional group of HNC patients on active EFT feeding to test the reliability and validity of the QOL-EF.

Results: A 20-item QOL-EF was developed. In phase 4, 72 patients were accrued over 2.5 years, 31 of which were part of the test-retest subgroup. Cronbach's α for the QOL-EF was 0.73, and test-retest reliability was 0.83. Moderate correlations were observed between scores for the QOL-EF and both the FACT-H&N (-0.58) and the UW-QOL (-0.42).

Conclusions: The QOL-EF is a treatment-specific QOL instrument developed and validated for use in HNC patients with EFTs. It may become an important tool in evaluating treatment outcomes and complications in these patients.