A structured review of quality of life instruments for head and neck cancer patients

Background. Quality of life (QOL) is an important treatment outcome for hea d and neck cancer. Our purpose was to critically review published disease-s pecific QOL instruments. Methods. Medline and Cancerlit were searched from 1966-1999. Eight disease- specific QOL instruments were identified, described, and appraised for deve lopment, sensibility. reliability, validity and responsiveness to change. Results. Several of the available instruments have been well-developed and characterized. No one instrument is ideal for all purposes. When selecting a disease-specific QOL instrument for head and neck cancer patients, carefu l consideration must be given to disease subsite, treatment, timing of asse ssment, clinical setting, study purpose and research question. Conclusion. Validation of QOL instruments is an ongoing process. Direct com parisons of different instruments may help to establish the most appropriat e questionnaire for each situation. Efforts should be focused on the evalua tion of existing instruments, rather than the development of new questionna ires. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.