Kyoungwon Choi1, Hoonsik Bae2, Yeon Ok Lim3, Ilsung Nam3, Hyunsook Yoon1, Yojin Kim1, Hyen Joo Lee4

1Department of Social Welfare, Graduate School of Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea, 2Department of Radiation Oncology, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea, 3Hallym University Institute of Aging, Chuncheon, Korea, 4Department of Social Welfare, Hallym Polytechnic University, Chuncheon, Korea


Background: The study examined the correlations among the results of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)-Quality of Life Questionnaire, Core 30 (QLQ-C30) completed by elderly cancer patients and their family caregivers and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG)-performance status (PS) evaluated by medical doctors.
Methods: The study sample included 269 persons with cancer aged 55 years or older and their family caregivers recruited from hospitals located in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. The results of the ECOG-PS evaluated by medical doctors were obtained from medical records. Intra-class correlation analysis was used to assess rater reliability between the elderly cancer patients and their family caregivers. Correlations among the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the ECOG-PS were tested using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearmen’s correlation.
Results: The results showed that four subscales of quality of life (physical functioning, emotional functioning, social functioning, and global health status) and three items under symptoms (fatigue, pain, and financial difficulties) in the EORTC QLQ-C30 were highly consistent between patients and their family caregivers. From the EORTC QLQ-C30 results, social functioning, role functioning, health status, fatigue, pain, and appetite loss (patients results) and physical functioning (family caregivers results) were highly consistent with the results of the ECOG-PS by the physicians.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that when the older persons with cancer have difficulty expressing their own thoughts or feelings, the EORTC QLQ-C30 completed by their family caregivers and the results of the ECOG-PS completed by the physicians could be used as substitutes.
Korean J Health Promot 2015;15(3):150-159

Keywords: EORTC QLQ-C30, ECOG-PS, Elderly cancer patients, Family caregivers