Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Oct;25(10):2467-2480.
doi: 10.1007/s11136-016-1284-8. Epub 2016 Apr 5.

Assessing health-related quality of life in patients with breast cancer: a systematic and standardized comparison of available instruments using the EMPRO tool

Stefano Maratia  1 , Sergio Cedillo  2   3 , Javier Rejas  4
Affiliations

Assessing health-related quality of life in patients with breast cancer: a systematic and standardized comparison of available instruments using the EMPRO tool

Stefano Maratia et al. Qual Life Res. 2016 Oct.

Abstract

Purpose: The objective was to obtain a standardized evaluation of available specific and generic breast cancer health-related quality-of-life instruments.

Methods: We carried out systematic literature reviews in the PubMed and EMBASE databases to identify manuscripts which contained information regarding either the development process or metric properties of health-related quality-of-life instruments used among breast cancer patients. Each instrument was evaluated independently by two researchers, and occasionally a third one, using the Evaluating Measures of Patient-Reported Outcomes (EMPRO) tool. An overall score and seven attribute-specific EMPRO scores were calculated (range 0-100, worst to best): concept and measurement model, reliability, validity, responsiveness, interpretability, burden, and alternative forms.

Results: FACT-B was the instrument with the best global performance, obtaining an overall EMPRO score of 79.27. It was also the most accurate instrument on the Concept and Measurement Model, Reliability, and Interpretability attributes. Four more instruments scored over 50 points on the overall score, which summarizes the five attribute-specific scores: EORTC BR-23, IBCSG, WHO-QOL BREF, and SF-36. An overall score of at least 50 points implies that the use of these instruments could be recommended for assessing health-related quality of life in breast cancer patients.

Conclusion: The FACT-B scored the highest on overall on our EMPRO evaluation of instruments measuring health-related quality of life among breast cancer patients. However, depending on the purpose of the study, several instruments (EORTC BR-23, IBCSG, SF-36, and WHO-QOL BREF) have shown good performance in some of the specific individual dimensions included in the EMPRO.

Keywords: Breast cancer; EMPRO; Health-related quality of life; Patient-reported outcomes; Psychometrics; Validation studies.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Int J Cancer. 2015 Mar 1;136(5):E359-86 - PubMed
    1. Breast J. 2003 Nov-Dec;9(6):463-71 - PubMed
    1. BMC Res Notes. 2014 Jan 21;7:53 - PubMed
    1. Qual Life Res. 2015 Feb;24(2):339-62 - PubMed
    1. Qual Life Res. 2010 May;19(4):539-49 - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources