Measuring Quality of Life in Thai Women with Breast Cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer has become a commonly diagnosed disease among Thai women in the last decade, despite thefact that Thai women generally have a lower rates than their Western counterparts. With the rising incidenceand survival rates, it is crucial for nurses to look at the long term quality of life of these patients. A broad rangeof instruments have been used in clinical trials among breast cancer patients in oncology, like the EORTCquestionnaire including the general quality of life questions (QLQ-C30) and the breast cancer module (QLQBR23),and the FACT-B questionnaire consisting of both a generic part (FACT-G) and a breast cancer specificmodule. They have been shown to have good validity and reliability properties both for the English original andtranslations into various languages including Thai. A few studies on quality of life in Thai context exist, coveringquality of life in women with breast cancer. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to find which standardmeasure of common Western quality of life scales is appropriate to assess quality of life in Thai women withbreast cancer. Results revealed the Thai version of EORTC QLQ-C30 and FACT-G questionnaires to be reliableand valid to assess quality of life in general. The best fit for measuring quality of life in Thai women with breastcancer during adjuvant treatment should be the EORTC QLQ-C30/-BR23.