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Quantifying health status outcomes in pediatric medulloblastoma patients
Johannes E A Wolff1, Ulrich Hüttermann, Martha A Askins
1Division of Pediatrics, Section of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology, University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Unit 87, Houston, TX 77030, USA. jwolff@mdanderson.org
Background:
Comprehensive, efficient health status assessment tools are needed for multi-center studies examining childhood brain tumor treatment outcomes. The Fertigkeitenskala Münster Heidelberg (FMH) is presented as a quantitative measure of health status.
Patients And Methods:
The FMH was compared with the medical assessments, intelligence scores, and behavioral/emotional adjustment scores of 21 survivors of medulloblastoma to examine the instrument's feasibility and discriminate validity. The subjects, aged from 3 to 38 years, represented a broad range of health functioning, from asymptomatic to severely handicapped. The median age at diagnosis was 10.5 years. The median time of assessment was 1.5 years from diagnosis.
Results:
Correlations calculated between the physicians' assessments and the other measures showed a very close relationship between the physicians' ratings and the FMH scores (rho =0. 784, p < 0. 0005) and physicians' ratings and Performance IQ (rho=0.679, p=0.005). Additionally, a correlation between the FMH and Full Scale IQ was demonstrated (r=0.627, p=0.012). The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) did not correlate with any other tests. Of the three assessment methods, the FMH showed the highest correlation with degree of handicap (p <0.0005). The FMH took less than 10 minutes to administer and was the only test feasible in all patients.
Conclusion:
The FMH is useful as an objective, easily administered measure of health status in brain tumor patients. The FMH offers health status information that is correlated with physicians' assessments and FSIQ, but not behavioral/emotional adjustment as assessed by the CBCL.
