Shortening the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

Abstract Questionnaires that are used in studies with severely ill patients should be as short as possible. Abridged versions of existing inventories are very practical in these instances. The answers of 444 subjects in three samples (cancer patients, medical students, surgical patients) were used to investigate the possibility of constructing short and reliable versions of the scales of the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory. A stepwise regression procedure showed the possibility to reliably predict the total score of the unabridged versions by means of weighted sums of eight items for each scale. Omission of weights did not lead to substantial loss of information. Cronbach's α of the State-scale decreased from 0.93 to about 0.85 for different combinations of items and from 0.91 to about 0.82 for combinations of eight items of the Trait-scale. The relationship between both scales was only slightly modified by the shortening procedure

Quality of life in patients with resected oesophageal cancer

__Abstract__ Quality of Life (QL) is hard to assess and seldom measured in patients having carcinomas with an unfavourable prognosis. Oesphageal cancer is one of the malignancies with a low 5-year survival rate. Dysphagia (problems in swallowing food) is considered to be the most important indicator of QL in patients with oesophageal carcinoma. Moreover, the psycho-social aspects and subjective QL in cancer have recently gained importance. The present study investigated QL in a 132 patients with oesophageal cancer. Eighty-three of them had a surgical operation (removal of part of the oesophagus and part of the stomach, followed by a reconstruction of the digestive tract). Sixty-seven patients filled in questionnaires before and after the operation. Complete sets of data were obtained from 62 patients. Time interval between operation and postoperative assessment varied from 3 to 7 months. Indicators of QL were: Psychological Distress, Physical Symptoms, Global Evaluations, Activity Level, Swallowing Problems and Food Intake. Swallowing Problems showed moderate correlations with the other QL indicators. Physical Symptoms increased, whereas the Activity Level, Psychological Distress, and Swallowing Problems decreased; Global Evaluations remained unaltered

De kwaliteit van leven van patiënten met slokdarmkanker die chirurgisch behandeld werden voor slokdarmkanker

In this thesis, a description is given of an empirical study of the quality of life (QL) of surgically treated patients with oesophageal cancer. In the first chapter some epidemiological data oesophageal cancer, a definition of the term scientific concept and results of studies in cancerpatients are described successively. concerning "QL" as a the QL of In the Netherlands, oesophageal cancer has a low incidence when compared with other types of cancer. The prognoses is very unfavorable: the 5-year survival rate is about 5%. The man;women ratio is 2:1. Surgery is one of the possible ways oesophageal cancer can be treated. surgery is very intrusive and requires a long period for recovery, but gives some impr ovement in five year survival rates. Interest in the QL of cancer patients has increased strongly over the past years. From a scientific point of view QL appears to be an unassimmil. able concept. There are problems concerning: the content of the concept (which aspekt of life is most relevant to QL), definitions of QL, measurement procedures, validity, functions of the QL concept and theoretical aspekts.In dit proefschrift wordt een empirisch onderzoek beshreven naar de kwaliteit van leven (QL = Quality of Life) van patienten die chirurgisch behandeld werden in verband met slokdarmkanker. In het eerste hoofdstuk worden achtereenvolgens enkele epidemiologische gegevens betreffende slokdarmkanker, een afbakening van het begrip "QL" als wetenschappelijk concept en resul taten van onderzoek naar de QL van patienten met kanker besproken. Slokdarmkanker komt in Nederland in vergelijking met andere kwaadaardige aandoeningen niet zo vaak voor. De prognose is echter ongunstig: het 5-jaars overlevingspercentage is ongeveer 5%. De man-vrouw verhouding is 2:1. De behandeling kan bestaan uit een buisprothese (buisje in de slokdarm), operatie,