Abstract
BACKGROUND: Brain tumor is often a devastating disease associated with significant impairment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). We evaluated reliability of the SF-36 questionnaire for assessment of HRQoL in neurosurgical brain tumor patients. METHODS: Consecutive patients admitted for primary brain tumor surgery were considered for this prospective study. On admission, patients were evaluated for HRQoL (SF-36 scale), functional status (Barthel index or BI) and depressive symptom severity (Beck depression inventory-II or BDI-II). RESULTS: Two-hundred and fourteen patients (70% women and 30% men; mean age 55.8 ± 14.4 years) completed the study. The most common brain tumor diagnoses were meningioma (40%), high-grade glioma (18%) and pituitary adenoma (13%). The lowest scores were on the SF-36 General health (48.3 ± 20.0), Role limitations due to physical problems (53.2 ± 42.5) and Energy/vitality (53.7 ± 21.5) subscales. Internal consistency of individual SF-36 subscales was acceptable for all but Social functioning subscale of the SF-36 questionnaire with Cronbach's coefficients alpha ranging from 0.92 for Physical functioning subscale to 0.69 for General health subscale of the SF-36. There was a moderate-to-strong correlation of the Role limitations due to emotional problems, Energy/vitality and Emotional well-being SF-36 subscales with the BDI-II scores (Pearson's correlation coefficients r range from -0.30 to -0.66; p-values <0.001). Scores on the SF-36 Physical functioning and Role limitations due to physical problems correlated with BI scores (0.49 and 0.25, p-values <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In neurosurgical brain tumor patients, the greatest impairment was found in General health, Role limitations due to physical problems and Energy/vitality domains of HRQoL. The SF-36 subscales had acceptable internal consistency with an exception of Social functioning subscale. The SF-36 subscales pertaining to physical health and emotional health aspects of HRQoL demonstrated adequate construct validity. The SF-36 is a reliable measure of HRQoL in neurosurgical brain tumor patients.