Objective: To identify factors significantly associated with quality of life (QOL) and determine if these associations are strong enough to predict certain aspects of QOL without measuring them.
Methods: We conducted an exploratory secondary analysis of baseline data of 224 patients (enrolled between December 2020 and March 2021) from a previously published prospective observational study on radiotherapy for bone metastases at 26 centres. Using univariable linear regression, we assessed the association between patient/treatment factors and QOL scale scores as measured by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QOL Questionnaire Core 15-Palliative (QLQ-C15-PAL) and the EORTC QOL Questionnaire Bone Metastases module (QLQ-BM22).
Results: Age and sex were not significantly associated with QOL. Worse performance status, higher pain scores, and opioid and single-fraction use were significantly associated with most QOL scales; these four factors were associated with worse global QOL, worse functioning status, and more severe symptoms. The coefficients of determination for most QOL scales were less than 0.2, indicating that most of the variability in QOL scores was not explained by any of the explanatory variables.
Conclusion: Performance status, pain intensity, and opioid and single-fraction use were significantly associated with most QOL scales. However, the associations were not strong enough to estimate QOL.
Advances in knowledge: To date, the association between treatment factors and QOL in patients with bone metastases has not been fully studied. We identified the factors that were significantly associated with QOL and found that these associations were not strong enough to predict QOL.