Table 2.

Frequencies and Examples of Talk about Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) during 73 Encounters between Oncologists and Their Patients, Coded in Terms of Themes Discussed during 603 Segments of Conversation^*

Codes	Number (%) of the 603 Coded Segments	Examples of Quotations
Codes by topic
Treatment-related	337 (56)	“The major risk is acute toxicity—nausea, vomiting, feeling lousy, the potential for infection.” (oncologist)
Disease-related	87 (14)	“You have a great quality of life, it sounds like. The disease isn’t causing a negative impact on your daily life.” (oncologist)
Testing-related	17 (3)	“So, we’ll give you some pain killers in preparation for the bone marrow test.” (oncologist) “When they draw blood, can they, you know, do it all at one time, without having to be stuck two or three different times?” (patient)
Codes by tense
Past HRQOL	266 (44)	“I already made up my mind that I don’t want it to be like it was before.… I don’t want to go through unnecessary pain…because I did go through a lot.” (patient)
Present HRQOL	407 (68)	“I can’t do any [of that]. He [my husband] does all the cooking. He does all the cleaning up in the kitchen. I’m not used to that.… To get in the car, go to the store if I want to—I can’t do any of those things.” (patient)
Future HRQOL	353 (59)	“[There are treatments] that have a good chance to help [and] would prolong quality of life and, when we get to the transplant phase, potentially cure you.” (oncologist)
Codes by HRQOL domain
Symptoms	300 (50)	“Those high doses can also damage the body, though. So you will feel bad from the chemo like you have a bad flu for a few weeks.” (oncologist)
General HRQOL	163 (27)	“The question is, What maximizes our chances for the longest quality of life?” (oncologist)
Physical HRQOL	163 (27)	“I don’t eat very much. I just don’t have the appetite.” (patient)
Functional HRQOL	134 (22)	“I want to walk. I want to get a life back.” (patient)
Psychological HRQOL	51 (9)	"I’m really angry. I’m angry because I didn’t ignore my condition and it wasn’t found before it got bad.” (patient)
Social HRQOL	44 (7)	“So as long as you’re not in front of someone coughing and sneezing and having a huge infection in front of you, it’s okay to go out and have fun and enjoy your life right now.” (oncologist)
Spiritual HRQOL	4 (1)	“We’re Catholic. We go to church. And holy water—I won’t even use the holy water because, I don’t know, [there might be] bugs or whatever swimming in that water.” (patient)
Other HRQOL concerns	169 (28)	“[The treatment will have] a pretty large impact on your quality of life because you go to the doctor’s office for a few hours three times a week for three months.” (oncologist)

^*Visits included 70 patients and 37 oncologists. A given segment of conversation could include one or more codes from each category.