Table 1.

Characteristics of Commonly Utilized QOL Measures

Instrument	Instrument Characteristics				Psychometric Properties
	Target Population	No. of Items	Response Format	Areas of Functioning Assessed	Internal Consistency	Test-Retest Reliability	Validity
QOL, quality of life.
Medical Outcome Study 36-Item Short Form	Healthy and medical populations	36	Likert scale, yes/no	Physical, role limitations, social, general health, mental health, bodily pain, vitality	≥0.70	0.79–0.82	Good item discriminate validity
European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire	Clinical cancer research	30	Likert scale, yes/no	Physical, role, cognitive, emotional, social, specific symptoms, global QOL	≥0.70	0.80–0.90	Good sensitivity to between-group differences and change over time
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy	General cancer (additional disease-specific modules, including brain, head, and neck)	27	Likert scale	Physical, social, emotional, functional	0.89	0.82–0.92	Good convergent and discriminate validity
University of Washington Quality of Life Questionnaire	Head and neck cancer	12	Likert scale	Pain, appearance, activity, recreation, swallowing, chewing, speech, shoulder, taste, saliva, mood, anxiety, global QOL	0.86	0.94	Good convergent validity
Anterior Skull Base Surgery Quality of Life Questionnaire	Patients undergoing surgical resection of anterior skull base tumors	35	Likert scale	Performance, physical function, vitality, pain, influence on emotions, specific symptoms	0.8	0.90	Strong association between some subscales and relevant clinical variables (malignancy, radiotherapy, etc.)