Validation of the flemish CARES, a quality of life and needs assessment tool for cancer care

BMC Cancer

Table 1 Socio-demographic and medical characteristics participants and non-responders

	Participants (N = 176)				Non-responders (n = 122)^a
	M	SD	n	%	M	SD	n	%
Socio-demographic Characteristics
Age	50.5	7.2			51.6	8.2
Sex
Men			54	30.7			38	31.1
Woman			122	69.3			83	68.0
Relational status
Single			20	11.4
Partner, married or living together			141	80.1
Partner, not married or living together			12	6.8
Widowed			3	1.7
Having children			148	84.1
Family members	11.9	10.8
Supportive family members	6.6	4.2
Supportive friends	13.5	12.6
Graduation level
Elementary school			13	7.4
High school			101	57.7
Graduate school			53	30.3
University			8	4.6
Job occupation
Employed			41	23.3
Work interruption/on sick leave			91	51.7
Unemployed			12	6.8
Disabled			20	11.4
Housewife/houseman			6	3.4
Retired			6	3.4
Monthly house hold income
< € 1500			51	30.7
€ 1500–€ 3000			79	47.6
> € 3000			36	21.7
Medical characteristics
Type of treatment
Surgery			138	81.7			94	84.7
Radiotherapy			104	61.2			52	46.8
Chemotherapy			109	64.5			57	51.8
Hormone therapy			58	34.3			27	24.3
Immune therapy			1	0.6			1	0.9
Concomitant radio-chemotherapy			18	10.7			16	14.4
Bone marrow transplantation			0	0.0			0	0.0
Isotopes			1	0.6			0	0.0
Other treatment			5	3.0			6	5.5
Time since diagnosis (weeks)^{b, c}	62.8	104.5			−	−
Phase of care trajectory
Active treatment phase			115	65.3
Completion of treatment			13	7.4
Follow-up phase			47	26.9

Abbreviations: M mean, SD standard deviation, n number of participants
^aData of only 117 out of 128 non-responders received, ^bDate of questionnaire completion or diagnosis missing for some participants, mean time since diagnosis based on n = 158, ^cTime since diagnosis unknown for non-responders, since date of invitation to participate in the research was not registered

ISSN: 1471-2407