Comparison of Health-Related Quality of Life Between Japanese and American Patients with Bladder Cancer as Measured by a Newly Developed Japanese Version of the Bladder Cancer Index

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study is to characterize health related quality of life (HRQOL) in Japanese patients after bladder cancer surgery and to perform cross-cultural comparison between Japanese and American patients. METHODS: Firstly, we cross-sectionally assessed HRQOL of 371 patients in Japan using the Bladder Cancer Index (BCI-Japanese). HRQOL of the four groups of patients (native bladder without intravesical therapy, native bladder with intravesical therapy, cystectomy with ileal conduit, and cystectomy with neobladder) were assessed. Secondly, we compared the Japanese with the American cohort (n = 315) from the original BCI paper. After adjusting for age and gender, the differences in each BCI subdomain score was analyzed. RESULTS: Among Japanese patients, the urinary domain function score was significantly lower among the cystectomy with neobladder group, compared to the cystectomy with ileal conduit group (p < 0. 01). Despite this, the urinary bother was comparable between the two groups. Although there were apparent differences between Japanese and American patients, there were few differences in Urinary and Bowel HRQOL. In three of the four treatment groups (other than native bladder with intravesical therapy), Japanese patients were more likely than Americans to report poor sexual function (p < 0.05). However, Japanese patients were less likely than Americans to be bothered by their lower sexual function, regardless of treatment (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: HRQOL outcomes following treatment of bladder cancer in Japan are comparable to those in the USA, except for sexual functioning and sexual bother. The BCI can be used for cross-cultural assessments of HRQOL in bladder cancer patients.

Translation, Linguistic Validation, and Cultural Adaptation of the Bladder Cancer Index (BCI) Questionnaire Into the Persian (Farsi) Language and Comparing it With WHO Quality of Life Questionnaire: An Observational Study

“…The mean scores for ICD and ONB were 87 (function: 84.6; bother 88.24) and 79.25 (function: 61.4; bother: 88.16), respectively, affirming the better urinary function in ICD participants with no major difference in urinary bother. Osawa et al reported similar results that the mean urinary function score was higher in ICD (89.2 ± 2.1) compared to ONB (52.5 ±2.8) patients ( 11 ).…”

“…found no difference in sexual function between ICD and ONB. Of note, sexual bother did not differ significantly between ICD, ONB, native bladder without intravesical therapy, and native bladder with intravesical therapy ( 11 ). Japanese patients also had higher scores than our patients and the American study they used in their analyses regarding the sexual bother sub-domain ( 16 ).…”

“…The BCI had translated and validated in multiple languages to fit the specific cultural and religious status of non-English speaking patients ( 8 – 11 ). We failed to find a QoL assessment of BCa patients in Iran, partly because the questionnaires were not translated and validated in Persian.…”