Recently, our paper “The application of a network approach to health-related quality of life (HRQoL): introducing a new method for assessing hrqol in healthy adults and cancer patients” was published in Quality of Life Research.
The objective of this paper was to introduce a new approach for analyzing Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) data, namely a network model.
The goal of this paper was to introduce the network approach in the analyzation of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) data. To show that the network approach can aid in the analysis of these kinds of data, we constructed networks of two samples: Dutch cancer patients (N = 485) and Dutch healthy adults (N = 1742). Both completed the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), a commonly used instrument across different disease conditions and patient groups [1]. In order to investigate the influence of diagnostic status, we added this binary variable to a third network that was constructed using both samples. The SF-36 consists of 8 sub-scales (domains). We constructed so-called “sub-scale” networks to gain more insight into the dynamics of HRQoL on domain level.
Results showed that the global structure of the SF-36 is dominant in all networks, supporting the validity of questionnaire’s subscales. Furthermore, we found that the network structure of the individual samples were similar with respect to the basic structure (item level), and that the network structure of the individual samples were highly similar not only with respect to the basic structure, but also with respect to the strength of the connections (subscale level). Lastly, centrality analyses revealed that maintaining a daily routine despite one’s physical health predicts HRQoL levels best.
We concluded that the network approach offers an alternative view on Healt-Related Quality of Life. We showed that the HRQoL network is, in its basic structure, similar across samples. Moreover, by using the network approach, we are able to identify important characteristics in the structure, which may inform treatment decisions.
[1] Ware, J. E, Jr, & Sherbourne, C. D. (1992). The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36): I. Conceptual framework and item selection. Medical Care, 30, 473–483.