APPRAISAL OF A UNIVERSAL QUALITY OF LIFE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR PATIENTS WITH PROSTATE CANCER

Background. The main goal of treatment in patients with prostate cancer (PC) is not only to achieve the maximum survival, but also to assure the high quality of life (QL). By taking into account the fact there are no specialized Russian adapted questionnaires to assess QL in PC, the authors have developed a test system to evaluate the specific changes in the QL of patients, which occurred before and during treatment of this disease.

Materials and methods. The «universal quality of life questionnaire for patients with prostate cancer» comprises 4 scales (sections): «Urination», «Intestinal function», «Sexual function», «Hormonal function». Each section includes subscales (subsections) which concretize the degree of dysfunction of the above systems and ascertain how these changes influence patients' social life. Unified variants of answers that provide a rather objective assessment of the degree of dysfunction of the above systems of an organism are given to all questions.  The authors examined 235 patients treated for PC at the Clinic of Urology, Military Medical Academy, of them 182 males had underwent radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) and 60 had received maximum androgenic blockade (surgical or medical). The validity of the questionnaire was assessed, by evaluating resistance and internal consistency.

Results. After various medical measures, QL in patients with PC became worse due to impaired urination, and sexual and hormonal dysfunctions. After RRP, the major impairments were urinary incontinence lowering their social disadjustment, as well as related troubles. The men who have undergone antiandrogenic deprivation suffer mainly from dysuria.  The Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.7, which signifies its high reliability. To estimate validity, the authors calculated the Crohnbach coefficient that was >0.8, which is indicative of the high validity of the test.

Conclusion. The questionnaire presented by the authors is a reliable tool in assessing the QL in patients with PC and may be recommended for its wide use by oncourological specialists in clinical practice and researches in the out- and inpatient settings.

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