Country-specific norms created for cancer-related quality of life
(HealthDay)—Country-specific norms have been established for the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) questionnaire to measure the self-reported quality of life of cancer patients, according to a study published in the January issue of the European Journal of Cancer.
Sandra Nolte, Ph.D., from Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and colleagues collected QLQ-C30 data from the general population across 11 European Union (EU) countries, Russia, Turkey, Canada, and the United States (≥1,000/country) and stratified the data by sex and age. Applying weights based on the United Nations population distribution statistics, they calculated QLQ-C30 norm scores for all 15 individual countries.
The researchers found that in the EU sample, most QLQ-C30 domains showed differences by sex and age, with men scoring somewhat better health than women. Age effects varied across domains. In intercountry comparisons, substantially larger differences were seen, with Austrian and Dutch respondents reporting consistently better health than British and Polish respondents.
"These new norm data facilitate valid intracountry as well as intercountry comparisons and QLQ-C30 score interpretation," the authors write.
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