WHAT DO ITALIAN HOSPITAL PHYSICIANS KNOW ABOUT QUALITY-OF-LIFE ASSESSMENT IN ONCOLOGY

Aims: To assess the current level of information and use of quality of life assessment instruments by Italian physicians involved in oncolog ic patient care. Methods: Specifically trained scientific representati ves of a pharmaceutical company interviewed 2237 hospital physicians a ll over Italy. Results: A total of 1390 physicians (62.1%) had some kn owledge of quality of life assessment tools in oncology, but 364 of th em (26.2%) were unable to recall the name of any instruments. The one that was most frequently recalled by the 1026 physicians who knew of t he existence of one or more instruments was the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) (91%) followed by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance scale (ECOG) (35.5%) whereas the Quality of Life Index and Visual Analogue Scale were at the very bottom of the list (5.9% and 3 .7%, respectively). Physician age and type of department were found to be strong predictors of knowledge of the instruments, which was great er among young physicians and those working in oncological departments . Of the physicians aware of the KPS, 56.6% used it, whereas the perce ntage of physicians using ECOG was higher (69.5%). Conclusions: The co llected data indicate a poor knowledge of quality of life assessment i nstruments in Italian physicians. Most physicians tend to use so-calle d <<objective>> instruments where the assessment is made by the physic ian and not by the patient (KPS, ECOG Quality of Life index), are prac tically unaware of the new generation of <<subjective>> self-rating in struments. The use of such instruments in particular might provide gre ater insights into the impact of the disease and related treatments on the quality of life of cancer patients.