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EORTC QLQ-COMU26: a questionnaire for the assessment of communication between patients and professionals. Phase III of the module development in ten countries

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Abstract

Purpose

Communication between patients and professionals is one major aspect of the support offered to cancer patients. The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group (QLG) has developed a cancer-specific instrument for the measurement of different issues related to the communication between cancer patients and their health care professionals.

Methods

Questionnaire development followed the EORTC QLG Module Development Guidelines. A provisional questionnaire was pre-tested (phase III) in a multicenter study within ten countries from five cultural areas (Northern and South Europe, UK, Poland and Taiwan). Patients from seven subgroups (before, during and after treatment, for localized and advanced disease each, plus palliative patients) were recruited. Structured interviews were conducted. Qualitative and quantitative analyses have been performed.

Results

One hundred forty patients were interviewed. Nine items were deleted and one shortened. Patients’ comments had a key role in item selection. No item was deleted due to just quantitative criteria. Consistency was observed in patients’ answers across cultural areas. The revised version of the module EORTC QLQ-COMU26 has 26 items, organized in 6 scales and 4 individual items.

Conclusions

The EORTC COMU26 questionnaire can be used in daily clinical practice and research, in various patient groups from different cultures. The next step will be an international field test with a large heterogeneous group of cancer patients.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by grants from EORTC Quality of Life Group (grant number EORTC QLG 006/2012) and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain) (grant number PI12-02293) that supported the collection of the data.

The work of L. M. W. and M. S. was supported by the Austrian National Bank (ÖNB, project number 14492) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, grant number P26930).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oncology Departments, Complejo Hospitalario de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    Juan Ignacio Arraras

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

    Lisa M. Wintner & Monika Sztankay

  3. Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Monika Sztankay

  4. Health Outcomes Research Unit, Department of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Social Work, Ignatianum Academy, Krakow, Poland

    Krzysztof A. Tomaszewski

  5. University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Dirk Hofmeister

  6. Psycho-Oncology Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sant’Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy

    Anna Costantini

  7. Institut Curie, Paris, France

    Anne Bredart

  8. Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, Northwood, UK

    Teresa Young

  9. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Center of Psychology, University Hospital Center Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia

    Karin Kuljanic

  10. Department of Medical Education, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland

    Iwona M. Tomaszewska

  11. Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece

    Meropi Kontogianni

  12. Department of Public Health, College of Public Health, Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Wei-Chu Chie

  13. QOL Department, EORTC HQ, Brussels, Belgium

    Dagmara Kulis

  14. Medical University Graz, Graz, Austria

    Eva Greimel

Authors
  1. Juan Ignacio Arraras
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  2. Lisa M. Wintner
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  3. Monika Sztankay
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  4. Krzysztof A. Tomaszewski
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  6. Anna Costantini
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  7. Anne Bredart
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  8. Teresa Young
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  9. Karin Kuljanic
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  11. Meropi Kontogianni
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  12. Wei-Chu Chie
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  13. Dagmara Kulis
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  14. Eva Greimel
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Consortia

Conducted on behalf of the EORTC Quality of Life Group

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juan Ignacio Arraras.

Ethics declarations

The protocol was approved by local ethical committees according to national requirements and followed the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, as revised in 2008.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Arraras, J.I., Wintner, L.M., Sztankay, M. et al. EORTC QLQ-COMU26: a questionnaire for the assessment of communication between patients and professionals. Phase III of the module development in ten countries. Support Care Cancer 25, 1485–1494 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3536-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3536-0

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