Table 4.
Quality of life reported by 87 patients with colorectal cancer assigned to chemotherapy at hospital outpatient clinic or at home. Values are means (SD) unless stated otherwise
| Item | Outpatient treatment
|
Home treatment
|
Difference in change in mean scores (95% CI) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial score (n=42) | Final score (n=23) | Initial score (n=45) | Final score (n=33) | |||
| EORTC QOL-C30 questionnaire* | ||||||
| Function: | ||||||
| Physical | 61 (26) | 67 (29) | 63 (24) | 68 (26) | −2 (−15 to 10) | |
| Role | 54 (41) | 3 (35) | 58 (37) | 81 (30) | 4 (−15 to 23) | |
| Emotional | 71 (24) | 79 (19) | 66 (23) | 76 (24) | 1 (−8 to 11) | |
| Cognitive | 89 (18) | 76 (29) | 87 (20) | 82 (21) | 7 (−2 to 17) | |
| Social | 82 (23) | 76 (23) | 83 (23) | 82 (19) | 5 (−6 to 17) | |
| Symptom: | ||||||
| Fatigue | 31 (28) | 30 (30) | 25 (21) | 29 (26) | 5 (−7 to 18) | |
| Nausea | 5 (15) | 7 (16) | 2 (8) | 6 (14) | 2 (−6 to 10) | |
| Pain | 21 (23) | 19 (25) | 22 (20) | 20 (24) | 1 (−10 to 12) | |
| Dyspnoea | 6 (15) | 7 (18) | 7 (16) | 11 (21) | 3 (−8 to 13) | |
| Insomnia | 39 (35) | 32 (38) | 35 (37) | 23 (32) | −4 (−22 to 14) | |
| Appetite loss | 28 (38) | 16 (33) | 21 (32) | 14 (27) | 7 (−13 to 28) | |
| Constipation | 15 (22) | 22 (30) | 10 (21) | 14 (23) | −2 (−15 to 10) | |
| Diarrhoea | 17 (28) | 17 (23) | 13 (23) | 16 (21) | 2 (−11 to 15) | |
| Financial difficulties | 8 (21) | 12 (24) | 5 (14) | 7 (21) | −1 (−12 to 10) | |
| General health status | 68 (20) | 68 (20) | 67 (20) | 71 (17) | 4 (−5 to 13) | |
| Karnofsky index† | ||||||
| Score | 84 (9) | 85 (11) | 83 (9) | 85 (11) | 0 (−5 to 6) | |
*
Scales range from 1 to 100, with higher scores representing better health (functional scales and global health status) or more problems (symptoms items).
†
Scale of performance status ranging from 1 to 100%, with higher scores representing better performance.