scholarly journals Living With Neuroendocrine Tumors: Assessment of Quality of Life Through a Mobile Application

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared R. Adams ◽  
David Ray ◽  
Renee Willmon ◽  
Sonia Pulgar ◽  
Arvind Dasari

PURPOSE To understand the quality of life (QoL) for patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) through comparison of QoL questionnaires and symptom tracking as well as journaling via the Carcinoid NETs Health Storylines mobile application (app). PATIENTS AND METHODS This was a 12-week prospective, observational study of US patients with NET who were taking long-acting somatostatin analogs. National Institutes of Health Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) questionnaires were administered three times. Patients also monitored symptoms, mood, bowel movements, food, activity, and sleep, and they journaled in their app, which was coded by theme and sentiment for qualitative analysis. RESULTS Of the 120 patients with NET, 78% were women (mean age, 57 years); 76% had gastroenteropancreatic NETs, and 88% had metastases. Lanreotide depot and octreotide long-acting release (LAR) were used by 41% and 59%, respectively. The most common symptoms at baseline were fatigue (76.7%), diarrhea (62.5%), abdominal discomfort (64.1%), and trouble sleeping (57.5%). The majority completed five of six survey assessments (median, 5; mean, 5.1) and tracked four symptoms in the app (median, 4; mean, 5.5); the average frequency was 41.6 days for each symptom (median, 43; mean, 41.6; range, 1 to 84 days [12 weeks]). Without treatment change, most EORTC-assessed physical symptoms decreased from baseline to midpoint (eg, 59.3% at baseline v 33% at midpoint reported “quite a bit” or “very much” diarrhea; P = .002). App-based symptom tracking revealed large day-to-day variation, but weekly averages correlated well with survey scores. Journal entries showed that more patients made predominantly negative unsolicited entries about their injection experience with octreotide LAR compared with lanreotide (13 of 17 v two of 13; P < .001). CONCLUSION Patients with NET experience a large symptom burden that varies daily. A decrease in physical symptoms on QoL surveys suggests an effect from daily app-based monitoring or journaling, which may reduce recall bias and benefit the patient’s experience of symptoms.

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 140-151
Author(s):  
Markus A. Wirtz ◽  
Matthias Morfeld ◽  
Elmar Brähler ◽  
Andreas Hinz ◽  
Heide Glaesmer

Abstract. The association between health-related quality of life (HRQoL; Short-Form Health Survey-12; SF-12) and patient-reported morbidity-related symptoms measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) is analyzed in a representative sample of older people in the general German population. Data from 1,659 people aged 60 to 85 years were obtained. Latent class analysis identified six classes of patients, which optimally categorize clusters of physical symptoms the participants reported: musculoskeletal impairments (39.8%), healthy (25.7%), musculoskeletal and respiratory/cardiac impairments (12.8%), musculoskeletal and respiratory impairments, along with bowel and digestion problems (12.9%), general impairments (4.9%), and general impairments with no bowel and digestion problems (4.8%). The participants’ SF-12 Physical Health Scores (η2 = .39) and their Mental Health Scores (η2 = .28) are highly associated with these latent classes. These associations remain virtually identical after controlling for age. The results provide evidence that profiles of patient-reported physical impairments correspond strongly with reduced HRQoL independently from aging processes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Morrisroe ◽  
Wendy Stevens ◽  
Molla Huq ◽  
Joanne Sahhar ◽  
Gene-Siew Ngian ◽  
...  

Background We aimed to evaluate the construct validity of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System 29 (PROMIS-29) in Australian systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients. Methods SSc patients, identified through the Australian Scleroderma Cohort Study database, completed two quality-of-life instruments concurrently, the PROMIS-29 and the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). The construct validity of the PROMIS-29 was assessed by the correlations between the PROMIS-29 and the SF-36 and Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI). Cronbach's alpha was used to test the internal reliability of all instruments in Australian SSc patients and non-parametric correlation, including Spearman's correlation, was used to test the construct validity of PROMIS-29 against the SF-36 and HAQ-DI. Results A total of 477 completed questionnaires were returned, equating to a response rate of 59.6%. The mean (±SD) age of respondents at the time of the survey was 64.1 (±11.1) years. They were predominantly female (87.4%), with limited disease subtype (lcSSc) (77.8%) and long disease duration from onset of first non-Raynaud's phenomenon symptom at the time of survey (10.9 ± 11.1 years). For the correlation analysis between the PROMIS-29 and the legacy instruments, all Spearman correlation coefficients were in the logical direction and highly significant suggesting that the PROMIS-29 is a good alternative to other validated measures of disease burden. Conclusions Our study indicates that the PROMIS-29 questionnaire is a valid instrument for measuring health-related quality of life in Australian females with lcSSc of long duration.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (2_suppl) ◽  
pp. 157-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Xiao Yang ◽  
Jackson Thea ◽  
Yi An ◽  
James B. Yu

157 Background: The use of digital health technology, including mobile applications, in the clinical setting is becoming increasingly more prevalent. Such technology is currently being explored as clinical research tools. While the side effects of prostate radiotherapy are well documented after treatment, there remains a paucity of data on patient-reported outcomes and changes in quality of life (QOL) during the treatment period. Therefore, mobile applications represent a practical platform to enable patient reporting in real-time during prostate radiotherapy. Methods: Using an existing open source code framework (Apple ResearchKit), we developed a novel mobile application that enables prostate cancer patients to report, either during or immediately following daily radiation treatment, changes in urinary, bowel, sexual, and hormonal QOL domains. The mobile application utilizes validated questions from the Expanded Prostate Index Composite for Clinical Practice (EPIC-CP) Survey, and allows for survey responses to be tracked over time throughout the treatment period and at routine follow up. Results: For the initial phase of our study, we are currently piloting the mobile application at a single institution with a goal of accruing 50 patients. Study results will be compared to data from traditional surveys, which are available at follow-up but impracticable for real-time symptom reporting. By ASCO 2016 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, we plan to begin the second phase of our study where any patient can enroll online through a mobile software distribution platform (Apple App Store). Conclusions: We demonstrate the feasibility of using a mobile application to enable patients to report quality of life changes in real-time during prostate radiotherapy. Moreover, our application facilitates clinical trials where patient data collection can be automated and completed at scale. Future prospective studies are planned to evaluate validity of clinical trial data gathered through such methodology.


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 58-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Pietrini ◽  
Giulio D’Anna ◽  
Lorenzo Tatini ◽  
Gabriela Alina Talamba ◽  
Costanza Andrisano ◽  
...  

AbstractBackground:To present real-world evidence on the effects of switching from oral to long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic maintenance treatment (AMT) in a sample of clinically stable patients with schizophrenia, with regard to subjective experience of treatment, attitude towards drug and quality of life.Methods:50 clinically stable adult schizophrenic outpatients were recruited. At the time of enrolment (T0), all patients were under a stabilized therapy with a single oral second-generation antipsychotic (SGA) and were switched to the equivalent maintenance regimen with the long-acting formulation of the same antipsychotic. 43 patients completed the 24-month prospective, longitudinal, open-label, observational study. Participants were assessed at baseline (T0), after 12 (T1) and 24 months (T2), using psychometric scales (PANSS, YMRS and MDRS) and patient-reported outcome measures (SWN-K, DAI-10 and SF-36).Results:The switch to LAI-AMT was associated with a significant clinical improvement at T1 and T2 compared to baseline (T0). All of the psychometric indexes, as well as patients’ subjective experience of treatment (SWN-K), and quality of life (SF-36) showed a significant improvement after one year of LAI-AMT, with stable results after two years. Patients’ attitude towards drug (DAI-10) increased throughout the follow-up period, with a further improvement during the second year.Conclusions:The switch to LAI-AMT may help to address the subjective core of an optimal recovery in stabilized schizophrenic patients. A sustained improvement in patients’ attitude towards drug may help to achieve patient’s compliance. The size of this study needs to be expanded to produce more solid and generalizable results.


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