Abstract
BackgroundRecently, breast cancer incidence and prevalence has been increasing. Patients' health related quality of life is important considerations in the treatment of breast cancer. The EQ-5D-3L is one of most popular instruments to measure health related quality of life. This study was aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of EQ-5D-3L in post-operative breast cancer patients from Korea.MethodsA total of 827 patients visiting the ambulatory cancer center of 1 tertiary hospital after breast cancer surgery self-administered the EQ-5D-3L and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Cancer (FACT-B). We evaluated known-group validity using differences in the EQ-5D-3L index and EQ-VAS score according to demographic and clinical data. The discriminatory ability of the EQ-5D-3L was determined by comparing the mean FACT-B subscale scores between subjects with no problems and subjects with moderate or severe problems in each EQ-5D-3L dimension. Construct validity was evaluated by Pearson correlation coefficients among the EQ-5D-3L index and FACT-B subscales, respectively. Reliability was assessed in terms of test-retest reliability using Cohen’s kappa value and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC).ResultsThe EQ-5D-3L index and EQ-VAS score were higher in the educated, current radiotherapy and unmarried groups. The correlation of EQ-5D-3L index and subscales for the FACT-B was highest in physical well-being (r = 0.553) and lowest in social well-being (r = 0.199). For reliability, the Kappa values’ range was from 0.32 to 0.70, and ICCs of the EQ-5D-3L index and EQ-VAS scores were 0.70 and 0.48, respectively.ConclusionsThis study indicated that the EQ-5D-3L could be a valid health related quality of life instrument for postoperative breast cancer patients.
Highlights
Breast cancer incidence and prevalence has been increasing
The initial 150 recruited subjects were requested to complete an EQ-5D-3L questionnaire 1 week later via mail to assess the test-retest reliability of each patient
The discriminatory ability of the EQ-5D-3L was determined by comparing the mean Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Cancer (FACT-B) subscale scores between subjects with no problems and subjects with moderate or severe problems in each EQ-5D-3L dimension
Summary
Patients' health related quality of life is important considerations in the treatment of breast cancer. The EQ-5D-3L is one of most popular instruments to measure health related quality of life. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and traditional clinical outcomes (i.e., survival rate or tumor responses) are considered as significant outcomes of cancer care [3]. Diseasespecific instruments can be more sensitive for detecting clinically important differences or changes in specific disease groups in general, general instrument is occasionally not inferior to disease-specific instrument [9]. They do not compare HRQoL of patients with other diseases [8]. Resource allocation for health care has been a critical issue, for its effectiveness, and
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