Quality of life instruments for skull base pathology: systematic review and methodologic appraisal

Background: Several quality of life (QOL) instruments exist for skull base pathology, however, there have been no attempts to appraise and systematically review these instruments.

Methods: We systematically reviewed MEDLINE, EMBASE, Central, AMED, Health and Psychosocial Instruments, and PsychoInfo for anterior or central skull base QOL instruments to January 2010. We queried experts, bibliographies, and meeting proceedings from the North American Skull Base Society from 2005 to 2009. Included instruments were evaluated for instrument characteristics, item generation and reduction, field testing, and measurement properties using predefined criteria.

Results: We identified 9 QOL instruments: 7 measuring QOL for pituitary pathology, 1 for midface pathology, and 1 for anterior skull base pathology. Eight of the 9 instruments have had some psychometric testing. None demonstrated all of the predefined psychometric properties.

Conclusions: There are several QOL instruments for patients with skull base pathology. None of these instruments met all predefined requirements, and further instrument development is needed.