IADL in Brain Tumor Patients

Activities in daily living can be divided into two categories, basic activities of daily living (BADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). BADL include basic skills such as feeding, bathing and dressing. IADL on the other hand, include more complex activities such as food preparation, ability to handle finances, shopping or housekeeping. These capacities are required for autonomous functioning. Because IADL are higher order activities, they may therefore be negatively influenced by cognitive decline, which is characteristic of brain tumor patients. Therefore, especially limitations in I-ADL are informative of the brain tumor patient’s functioning in daily life.

Currently, there is no questionnaire available to measure IADL in brain tumour patients. Therefore, the aim of this project is to develop a reliable and valid questionnaire to measure IADL in patients with brain tumors.

We have recently completed phase 3 of the project and have just obtained approval for phase 4.

The item list resulting from phase 3 is currently translated by the EORTC Translation Unit. As soon as the translations are available, ethical approval procedures can be started in certain countries, and patient recruitment in countries where ethical approval is already obtained.

We expect to start patient recruitment in September 2019, and phase 4 is expected to be competed in July 2021.

Not only information on survival is important for patients, but also information about functioning in daily life and well-being. Functioning in daily life can be divided into two categories, the so-called basic activities of daily living (BADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). BADL include basic activities such as feeding, bathing and dressing. IADL on the other hand, include more complex activities such as food preparation, ability to handle finances, shopping or housekeeping. These activities are important to stay independent.

Patients with brain tumours often have cognitive difficulties, such as problems with concentration or memory. These problems may especially result in a decreased performance in IADL.

Currently, there is no questionnaire available to measure IADL in brain tumour patients. The aim of this project is to develop a good questionnaire to measure IADL in patients with brain tumors, which may help physicians to better evaluate how the patient is doing.