Aim
To (1) assess the level of consistency between the Quality of Life scores of prostate cancer men for urinary/ bowel/ sexual bother collected via telephone vs self-administered survey; (2) determine factors associated with variation in level of agreement, and (3) assess the efficacy of telephone interview as a mode of administration against the “gold standard” tool EPIC-26.
Methods
Cohen’s Kappa coefficients were calculated for urinary/bowel/sexual health domains to investigate test-retest reliability across modes of administration. Logistic regression models explored patients’ characteristics associated with the magnitude of urinary/ bowel/sexual problem. Sensitivities and specificities of the telephone mode in reference to “gold standard” were further measured.
Results
From 221 men who agreed to participate in the study, 168 (76.0%) returned completed questionnaires. Kappa –linear model resulted in a moderate agreement across the urinary/bowel/sexual bother scores for both modes of administration. Level of exact agreement ranged from 78%-90%, with greatest concordance recorded for bowel bother (90%). Sensitivity tests revealed, that 68% of men with a moderate/big sexual problem during the phone interviews would respond of suffering from a moderate/big sexual problem. A statistically significant association was observed between self-reported big sexual bother, age, risk of the disease and whether men received active treatment(s) (Chi²:8.18, p=0.042).
Conclusion
Results of this study explored the validity of the telephone administered interviews; however more research is required to determine the differences between self-administered and telephone interviews in men with prostate cancer men.