QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN METASTATIC PROSTATE-CANCER AMONG MEN OF LOWER SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS - FEASIBILITY AND CRITERION-RELATED VALIDITY OF 3 MEASURES

Purpose: Identification of metastatic disease progression is often dif ficult but important. Previous studies of quality of life in metastati c disease have been limited by the small number of respondents who wer e not white or of lower socioeconomic status. Quality of life assessme nt is generally done using self-administration techniques but this met hod is of limited usefulness for patients of low socioeconomic status, many of whom have limited reading abilities. We evaluated the feasibi lity and validity of interviewer administration of 3 quality of life i nstruments for patients of low socioeconomic status with metastatic pr ostate cancer. Materials and Methods: We used instruments previously v alidated with self-administration methodology, including the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer-Quality of Life Ques tionnaire-30, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General Scale an d Quality of Life Index. Subjects were men with metastatic prostate ca ncer with stable (78) or progressive (32) disease at 4 Veterans Affair s medical centers and 1 other site. Of the patients 94% were Veterans Affairs patients and more than 60% were black. Results: Each quality o f life instrument required less than 10 minutes of interviewer adminis tration and was able to discriminate between patients with stable vers us progressive disease on several health status domains. Conclusions: These data support the feasibility and validity of quality of life mea surement in patients of low socioeconomic status with metastatic prost ate cancer. Consideration should be given to adding quality of life in struments to patient encounter even among low socioeconomic status, lo w literacy populations.