Abstract
BackgroundWomen with cervical cancer now have relatively good 5-year survival rates. Better survival rates have driven the paradigm in cancer care from a medical illness model to a wellness model, which is concerned with the quality of women's lives as well as the length of survival. Thus, the assessment of quality of life among cervical cancer survivors is increasingly paramount for healthcare professionals. The purposes of this review were to describe existing validated quality of life instruments used in cervical cancer survivors, and to reveal the implications of quality of life measurement for Chinese cervical cancer survivors.MethodsA literature search of five electronic databases was conducted using the terms cervical/cervix cancer, quality of life, survivors, survivorship, measurement, and instruments. Articles published in either English or Chinese from January 2000 to June 2009 were searched. Only those adopting an established quality of life instrument for use in cervical cancer survivors were included.ResultsA total of 11 validated multidimensional quality of life instruments were identified from 41 articles. These instruments could be classified into four categories: generic, cancer-specific, cancer site-specific and cancer survivor-specific instruments. With internal consistency varying from 0.68-0.99, the test-retest reliability ranged from 0.60-0.95 based on the test of the Pearson coefficient. One or more types of validity supported the construct validity. Although all these instruments met the minimum requirements of reliability and validity, the original versions of these instruments were mainly in English.ConclusionSelection of an instrument should consider the purpose of investigation, take its psychometric properties into account, and consider the instrument's origin and comprehensiveness. As quality of life can be affected by culture, studies assessing the quality of life of cervical cancer survivors in China or other non-English speaking countries should choose or develop instruments relevant to their own cultural context. There is a need to develop a comprehensive quality of life instrument for Chinese cervical cancer survivors across the whole survivorship, including immediately after diagnosis and for short- (less than 5 years) and long-term (more than 5 years) survivorship.
Highlights
Cervical cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in developing countries
Better survival rates have driven the paradigm in the life-altering burden of cancer care from a medical illness model to a wellness model concerned with the quality of women’s lives as well as the length of survival [3]
Terms used for searching included cervical cancer, cervix cancer, survivors, survivorship, quality of life, measurement, assessment, and instruments, which were searched in five computerized databases: CINAHL, Medline, PsycInfo, Scopus, and the Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CJFD)
Summary
Cervical cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in developing countries. With nearly 500 000 women developing cervical cancer per year, China’s estimated 131 500 new cases constitute 28.8% of the total new cases annually worldwide [1]. Better survival rates have driven the paradigm in the life-altering burden of cancer care from a medical illness model to a wellness model concerned with the quality of women’s lives as well as the length of survival [3]. Quality of life (QOL) is one of the health outcomes that enable healthcare providers to better address the ongoing concerns of cancer survivors. Chinese cancer survivors view “normal living”, a good working life, happiness, material resources and support from their families as essential indicators of QOL [6,7]. Better survival rates have driven the paradigm in cancer care from a medical illness model to a wellness model, which is concerned with the quality of women’s lives as well as the length of survival. The purposes of this review were to describe existing validated quality of life instruments used in cervical cancer survivors, and to reveal the implications of quality of life measurement for Chinese cervical cancer survivors
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