Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Clinic of Urology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Eur J Cancer Care (Engl). 2019 Jul;28(4):e13027. doi: 10.1111/ecc.13027. Epub 2019 Feb 27.
Urologic cancer patients often assess their quality of life (QoL) as being relatively good. Response shift (change in internal standards) may be one reason for that effect. The aim of this study was to test such response shift effects.
A sample of 197 male urologic cancer patients was tested while hospitalised (t1) and three months later (t2). The participants had to assess their current health state and the health state of two anchoring vignettes. They also completed the EORTC QLQ-C30 and PHQ-4 questionnaires, including a retrospective thentest. The control sample was comprised of members of the general population.
The patients rated their general health as being worse than people from the general population did (effect size: d = 0.73, p < 0.001). Moreover, the patients assessed the vignette presenting physical problems as being significantly healthier than people from the general population did (d = 0.42, p < 0.001). Under the retrospective thentest condition, the patients rated their QoL and their mental burden as being significantly worse than in the pre-test condition. Both methods showed response shift effects.
Urologic cancer patients' assessments of their QoL should be handled with caution because of possible shifts in their internal standards of judgement.
泌尿科癌症患者通常会评估自己的生活质量（QoL）相对较好。反应转移（内部标准的变化）可能是造成这种效果的原因之一。本研究旨在测试这种反应转移效应。
对 197 名男性泌尿科癌症患者进行了测试，分别在住院期间（t1）和三个月后（t2）进行测试。参与者必须评估自己当前的健康状况和两个锚定情节的健康状况。他们还完成了 EORTC QLQ-C30 和 PHQ-4 问卷，其中包括回溯测试。对照组由普通人群中的成员组成。
患者对自己的一般健康状况的评价比普通人群差（效应量：d=0.73，p<0.001）。此外，患者评估呈现身体问题的情景比普通人群中的人明显更健康（d=0.42，p<0.001）。在回溯测试条件下，患者对自己的生活质量和精神负担的评价明显比预测试条件差。两种方法都显示出反应转移效应。
由于判断的内部标准可能发生变化，泌尿科癌症患者对自己的生活质量的评估应谨慎处理。
