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The Minneapolis-Manchester Quality of Life Instrument: reliability and validity of the Adult Form in cancer survivors

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Abstract

Purpose

Childhood cancer survivors are at risk for deficits in health-related quality of life (HRQL) as they age. Youth (8–12 years) and adolescent (13–20 years) versions of the Minneapolis-Manchester Quality of Life Instrument (MMQL) have been developed to address survivor-specific issues and are currently in use; the MMQL-Adult Form has now been developed to assess HRQL in childhood cancer survivors aged 21–55 years.

Methods

The MMQL-Adult Form was administered to 499 adults: 65 cancer patients on-therapy, 107 off-therapy, and 327 healthy controls. Forty-four percent of patients were under 30 years old at cancer diagnosis. Principal components analysis was performed. We evaluated internal consistency reliability, stability (re-administration of the MMQL-Adult Form 2 weeks later), construct validity (concurrent administration of the SF-36), and known-groups validity (score comparisons across the three groups).

Results

Principal components analysis resulted in retention of 44 items across six scales: social functioning, physical functioning, cognitive functioning, outlook on life, body image, and psychological functioning. Internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) was 0.80–0.90 for individual scales and 0.95 overall. Strong intraclass correlations (0.98 overall) indicated high stability. The MMQL-Adult Form distinguished between known groups; healthy controls scored better than patients on four of six scales. The MMQL-Adult Form scales correlated highly with similar SF-36 scales, demonstrating construct validity.

Conclusions

The MMQL-Adult Form is a reliable and valid self-report instrument for measuring multidimensional HRQL in cancer survivors. Development of this instrument ensures availability of a tool enabling cross-sectional and longitudinal assessment of HRQL in childhood cancer survivors as they age.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Gwen Uman, RN, PhD, for her assistance with statistical analysis. Research reported in this publication included work performed in the Survey Research Core supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award number P30CA033572. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Population Sciences, City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA

    Alysia Bosworth & Eric Wu

  2. Department of Medicine, Harbor-UCLA, Torrance, CA, USA

    Elizabeth L. Goodman

  3. Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1600 7th Avenue South, Lowder 500, Birmingham, AL, 35233, USA

    Liton Francisco & Smita Bhatia

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA

    Leslie L. Robison

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  1. Alysia Bosworth
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Correspondence to Smita Bhatia.

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Bosworth, A., Goodman, E.L., Wu, E. et al. The Minneapolis-Manchester Quality of Life Instrument: reliability and validity of the Adult Form in cancer survivors. Qual Life Res 27, 321–332 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-017-1671-9

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