Quality of life, disability, well-being, and coping strategies in patients undergoing neurosurgical procedures: preoperative results in an Italian sample.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this paper is to present the preliminary results of QoL, well-being, disability, and coping strategies of patients before neurosurgical procedure.

METHODS: We analysed data on preoperative quality of life (EUROHIS-QoL), disability (WHODAS-II), well-being (PGWB-S), coping strategies (Brief COPE), and functional status (KPS score) of a sample of patients with brain tumours and cerebrovascular and spinal degenerative disease admitted to Neurological Institute Carlo Besta. Statistical analysis was performed to illustrate the distribution of sociodemographic and clinical data, to compare mean test scores to the respective normative samples, and to investigate the differences between diagnoses, the correlation between tests, and the predictive power of sociodemographic and clinical variables of QoL.

RESULTS: 198 patients were included in the study. PGWB-S and EUROHIS-QoL scores were significantly lower than normative population. Patients with spinal diseases reported higher scores in WHODAS-II compared with oncological and cerebrovascular groups. Finally sociodemographic and clinical variables were significant predictors of EUROHIS-QoL, in particular PGWB-S and WHODAS-II.

CONCLUSION: Our preliminary results show that preoperatory period is critical and the evaluation of coping strategies, quality of life, disability, and well-being is useful to plan tailored intervention and for a better management of each patient.