Development and preliminary validation of a health-related family quality of life instrument.

The researchers' aims for this preliminary study was to develop an instrument, guided by the Theory of Health-related Family Quality of Life, to measure health-related family quality of life (HR-FQoL) as perceived by women with cancer. The researchers used a two phase design for instrument development: (1) establishing face validity of a 38-item instrument with an expert panel and patient review, and (2) focusing on the internal structure and construct validity of the instrument with responses from female patients ( = 236) with a cancer diagnosis (breast, gynecologic). The researchers identified a final 25-item HR-FQoL instrument with four sub-scales that each captured multiple concepts within the Theory of HR-FQoL.

A Comparison of Symptoms Among Patients with Head and Neck or Truncal Lymphedema and Normal Controls.

Symptoms associated with midline lymphedema are not fully understood and it is unclear if symptoms associated with swelling in the head and neck are similar to those associated with swelling in the truncal region of the body. Describe symptoms experienced by those with head and neck and truncal lymphedema. Compare symptom presence, intensity, and distress among those two groups and participants with no lymphedema.