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Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System

Name of Questionnaire

Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System (CARES)

Description

Cancer-specific quality of life instrument. Patients rate cancer-related problems encountered on a daily basis. Clinical and research versions. A shortened version of the instrument (CARES-Short Form) has also been developed.

Developer(s)

CARES Consultants: A Coscarelli, RL Heinrich, PA Ganz, RL Aadland

Address

Anne Coscarelli
CARES Consultants
2210 Wilshire Blvd
Suite 359
Santa Monica, California 90403
310-794-7678

E-mail

Not available.

URL

Not available.

Cost & availability

Available for purchase at above address

Administration

Self

Time to complete

Average: 20 minutes (range: 10 to 34 minutes)

Number of items

139 (88 for all patients, 51 for patients in specific situations)

Domains & categories (#)

5 summary scales for broader scoring, 31 subscales for detailed scoring

Name of categories/domains

For broader scoring: physical, psychosocial, marital, medical interaction, sexual

Scaling of items

Five-point severity rating scale: 0 is "Not At All" (no problem), 4 is "Very Much" (severe problem).

Scoring

Detailed, broad, and/or overall scale score

Reliability

a. Test-retest/
reproducibility:		 Reported 1 2
b. Internal consistency: Reported2

Validity

Reported to be comprehensive and shown to include problems experienced by cancer patients1 2. Reported to measure what it purports to measure3. Correlated as expected with Symptom Checklist-90, Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Karnofsky Performance Status, a visual analog scale, and Functional Living Index – Cancer1 2.

Responsiveness

Reported in breast cancer patients4

Minimally important difference

Not determined

Research Use

Reported – functional status in women with lung cancer (used only physical function subscale of CARES-SF)5, quality of life in cancer survivors6.

Clinical Use

Not reported. However, a clinical version of the instrument that allows respondents to indicate "Yes" or "No" for whether they would like help with each problem is available.

Language(s)

Original: English (US)

Comments

During the early phases of its development, CARES was called the Cancer Inventory of Problem Situations (CIPS)1 3.

References

    1. Heinrich RL, Schag CC, Ganz PA. Living with cancer: the cancer inventory of problem situations. J Clin Psych 1984; 40:972-80.
    2. Schag CA, Heinrich RL, Aadland RL. Assessing problems of cancer patients: psychometric properties of the Cancer Inventory of Problem Situations. Health Psych 1990; 9:83-102.
    3. Schag CA, Heinrich RL. Development of a comprehensive quality of life measurement tool: CARES. Oncology (Huntingt) 1990; 4:135-8; discussion 147; appendix 209-215.
    4. Ganz PA, Schag CA, Lee JJ, Sim M-S. The CARES: a generic measure of health-related quality of life for patients with cancer. Qual Life Res 1992; 1:19-29.
    5. Sarna L. Functional status in women with lung cancer. Cancer Nurs 1994; 17:87-93.
    6. Schag CA, Ganz PA, Wing DS, Sim M-S, Lee JJ. Quality of life in adult survivors of lung, colon, and prostate cancer. Qual Life Res 1994; 3:127-41.

      Date of information

      July 2000

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