Abstract
BACKGROUND
Brain tumor patients may experience impairments in everyday functioning due to both physical and cognitive symptoms. Measures of everyday functioning may therefore be relevant for brain tumor patients in both clinical trials and practice. Everyday functioning can be assessed using activity of daily living (ADL) outcome measures. There are two categories of ADL: basic activities of daily living (BADL; e.g. washing and dressing) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL; e.g. shopping or cooking). The aim of this systematic review was to identify outcome measures containing items on BADL and/or IADL that currently are used in studies with brain tumor patients, and to assess the content validity of these instruments.
METHODS
Several electronic databases (i.e. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, PsycINFO and CINAHL) were searched up to April 2017 to identify studies with brain tumor patients that used outcome measures with ADL items. Articles were selected based on predetermined in- and exclusion criteria.
RESULTS
The literature search identified 31 unique outcome measures containing items on BADL and/or IADL. There were 22 (71%) outcome measures containing BADL items and 29 (94%) outcome measures containing IADL items. More than half (65%) of the outcome measures contained both BADL and IADL items. The number of BADL items in each questionnaire ranged from 0% to 83%, and from 0% to 100% for IADL items. Only two outcome measures were specifically developed to measure BADL (Barthel Index and Katz-ADL), and two specifically for IADL (Lawton-Brody IADL and preliminary IADL-brain tumor). However, these instruments have not (yet) been validated in brain tumor patients.
CONCLUSION
Currently, there is a lack of suitable options to sufficiently measure BADL and/or IADL in brain tumor patients. Validation of currently existing BADL and IADL measures in brain tumor patients seems necessary, or the development of new tools.