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 patient recruitment for phase 3 of the project.

We are currently waiting for approval of the phase 3 report. After this, we can start with phase 4 of the project.

We plan to submit the phase 4 grant proposal and protocol as soon as we have approval of the phase 3 report. Next, patient recruitment for phase 4 can start.

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.