Abstract
Purpose
The objectives of this study were to examine the psychometric properties of the self-report Oral Mucositis Daily Questionnaire (OMDQ) and to measure the importance of mucositis in children receiving intensive chemotherapy.
Methods
Children ≥12 years of age receiving intensive chemotherapy for leukemia/lymphoma or undergoing stem cell transplantation were asked to complete the OMDQ daily for 21 days after chemotherapy. Other measures of mucositis obtained concurrently with OMDQ included the World Health Organization (WHO) mucositis scale, the pain visual analog scale (VAS), and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Esophageal Cancer Sub-scale (FACT-ECS). The importance of mucositis was estimated using a VAS, time trade-off technique, and willingness to pay to avoid mucositis.
Results
Fifteen children participated. Test–retest reliability demonstrated at least moderate correlation for all questions within the OMDQ. Assessment of construct validity of the OMDQ revealed at least moderate correlation with WHO, VAS, and FACT-ECS for questions regarding pain, swallowing, drinking, and eating. Effect on sleeping and talking had lower correlations than that expected a priori. The diarrhea question of the OMDQ did not correlate with other measures of mucositis. Severe mucositis is important to children, while mild mucositis is less important to them. Children were willing to pay moderate amounts of money to prevent mucositis.
Conclusions
The OMDQ exhibits test–retest reliability, and most questions show construct validity with the exceptions of the sleep, talking, and diarrhea questions. Therefore, the OMDQ should not be used unmodified as a self-report instrument in children with cancer. Severe mucositis is of importance to these children.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chen CL, Kuppermann M, Caughey AB, Zane LT (2008) A community-based study of acne-related health preferences in adolescents. Arch Dermatol 144:988–994
Cheng KK, Goggins WB, Lee VW, Thompson DR (2008) Risk factors for oral mucositis in children undergoing chemotherapy: a matched case–control study. Oral Oncol 44:1019–1025
Cheuk DK, Lee TL, Chiang AK, Ha SY, Chan GC (2008) Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for high-risk brain tumors in children. J Neuro-Oncol 86:337–347
Colton T (1974) Statistics in medicine. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, p 211
Darling G, Eton DT, Sulman J, Casson AG, Celia D (2006) Validation of the functional assessment of cancer therapy esophageal cancer subscale. Cancer 107:854–863
Donaldson C (2001) Eliciting patients’ values by use of ‘willingness to pay’: letting the theory drive the method. Health Expect 4:180–188
Druley TE, Hayashi R, Mansur DB, Zhang QJ, Barnes Y, Trinkaus K, Witty S, Thomas T, Klein EE, DiPersio JF, Adkins D, Shenoy S (2009) Early outcomes after allogeneic hematopoietic SCT in pediatric patients with hematologic malignancies following single fraction TBI. Bone Marrow Transpl 43:307–314
Drummond MF (1997) Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Drummond MF, Drummond MF Mfteeohcp (2005) Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Figliolia SL, Oliveira DT, Pereira MC, Lauris JR, Mauricio AR, Oliveira DT, Mello de Andrea ML (2008) Oral mucositis in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: analysis of 169 paediatric patients. Oral Dis 14:761–766
Gibson F, Auld EM, Bryan G, Coulson S, Craig JV, Glenny AM (2010) A systematic review of oral assessment instruments: what can we recommend to practitioners in children’s and young people’s cancer care? Cancer Nurs 33:E1–E19
Gold MR (1996) Cost-effectiveness in health and medicine. Oxford University Press, New York
Hanemann W (1984) Welfare evaluations in contingent valuation experiments with discrete responses. Am J Agr Econ 66:332–341
Hayden JA, Mior SA, Verhoef MJ (2003) Evaluation of chiropractic management of pediatric patients with low back pain: a prospective cohort study. J Manip Physiol Ther 26:1–8
Jemal A, Siegel R, Xu J, Ward E (2010) Cancer statistics, 2010. CA Cancer J Clin 60:277–300
Juniper EF, Guyatt GH, Feeny DH, Griffith LE, Ferrie PJ (1997) Minimum skills required by children to complete health-related quality of life instruments for asthma: comparison of measurement properties. Eur Respir J 10:2285–2294
Karthaus M, Rosenthal C, Ganser A (1999) Prophylaxis and treatment of chemo- and radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis—are there new strategies? Bone Marrow Transpl 24:1095–1108
Press J, Gidron Y, Maimon M, Gonen A, Goldman V, Buskila D (2003) Effects of active distraction on pain of children undergoing venipuncture: who benefits from it? Pain Clin 15:261–269
Prosser LA, Hammitt JK, Keren R (2007) Measuring health preferences for use in cost–utility and cost–benefit analyses of interventions in children: theoretical and methodological considerations. PharmacoEconomics 25:713–726
Ryan M, Watson V (2009) Comparing welfare estimates from payment card contingent valuation and discrete choice experiments. Health Econ 18:389–401
Smith RD (2001) The relative sensitivity of willingness-to-pay and time-trade-off to changes in health status: an empirical investigation. Health Econ 10:487–497
Stiff PJ, Erder H, Bensinger WI, Emmanouilides C, Gentile T, Isitt J, Lu ZJ, Spielberger R (2006) Reliability and validity of a patient self-administered daily questionnaire to assess impact of oral mucositis (OM) on pain and daily functioning in patients undergoing autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Bone Marrow Transpl 37:393–401
Tomlinson D, Ethier MC, Judd P, Doyle J, Gassas A, Naqvi A, Sung L (2011) Reliability and construct validity of the oral mucositis daily questionnaire in children with cancer. Eur J Cancer 47:383–388
Tomlinson D, Gibson F, Treister N, Baggott C, Judd P, Hendershot E, Maloney AM, Doyle J, Feldman B, Sung L (2008) Challenges of mucositis assessment in children: expert opinion. Eur J Oncol Nurs 12:469–475
Tomlinson D, Isitt JJ, Barron RL, Doyle J, Judd P, Gassas A, Naqvi A, Sung L (2008) Determining the understandability and acceptability of an oral mucositis daily questionnaire. J Pediatr Oncol Nurs 25:107–111
Tomlinson D, Judd P, Hendershot E, Maloney AM, Sung L (2007) Measurement of oral mucositis in children: a review of the literature. Support Care Cancer 15:1251–1258
Von Neumann J, Morgenstern O (1953) Theory of games and economic behavior. Wiley, New York
World Health Organization (1979) Handbook for reporting results of cancer treatment. World Health Organization, Geneva, pp 15–22
Yi MS, Britto MT, Sherman SN, Moyer MS, Cotton S, Kotagal UR, Canfield D, Putnam FW, Carlton-Ford S, Tsevat J (2009) Health values in adolescents with or without inflammatory bowel disease. J Pediatr 154:527–534
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Richard Wing, Tania Chung, and Celia Lai in terms of patient recruitment and data management. LS is supported by a New Investigator Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The project was supported by an Operating Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (#86648) and a Connaught award from the University of Toronto. This project was also supported by Kraft Canada Inc.
Conflict of interest statement
None to declare.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Manji, A., Tomlinson, D., Ethier, MC. et al. Psychometric properties of the Oral Mucositis Daily Questionnaire for child self-report and importance of mucositis in children treated with chemotherapy. Support Care Cancer 20, 1251–1258 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1211-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1211-z