Mindfulness Therapy for Individuals With Lung Cancer

Symptom Severity and interference were measured with the M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI) . The MDASI is a multisymptom patient-reported outcome measure. The MDASI has 13 core items include symptoms found to have the highest frequency and/or severity in patients with various cancers and treatment types (pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, disturbed sleep, distress, shortness of breath, memory difficulties, lack of appetite, drowsiness, dry mouth, sadness,numbness and tingling. Patients rate the severity of each symptom "at its worst" using 0-10 numerical rating scales with 0 = "not present" and 10 = "as bad as you can imagine." The measure includes 5 symptom interference items which ask how much all symptoms, interfere with domains (walking, work, general activity, mood, relations with others, enjoyment of life) also rated on a 0-10 scale (0 = "did not interfere"; 10 = "interfered completely"). The 13 severity (range 0 - 130) and 5 interference items (range 0 - 50) are summed.

Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL) Indices (Physical/Emotional Function, Role Function, Pain, General Health, Vitality, Mental/Physical Health)HRQOL(SF-36) calculated using Quality Metric, Inc. an algorithm producing normal scores (1-100 range). With normed scoring, general population has mean=50, SD=10. For the minimum and maximum values in each of the scale ranges provided, higher values represent a better outcome.

The score is the sum of the 20 questions. Each item has a range of 1 - 4 for frequency of a behavior or mental state in the past week ; 1 - Rarely or none of the time (less than 1 day); 2 = Some or a little of the time (1-2 days); 3 = Occasionally or a moderate amount of time (3-4 days); 4 = Most or all of the time (5-7 days). Possible range is 0-60. There are 4 reverse-scored items (questions 4, 8, 12, and 16). A score of 16 points or more is considered depressed.

The cancer dyspnea scale (CDS) has 12 Likert scale items ( 1 = Not at all, 5 = Very much) that ask questions about breathlessness or difficulty in breathing during the past few days. The CDS has an overall score (range 0-42) and 3 subscales that measure the amount of effort with breathing, anxiety associated with breathing, and discomfort associated with breathing.

The 3 subscales are calculated by: 1) effort (items 4+6+8+10+12) - 5 [range 0 (no dyspnea effort)-20 (worst dyspnea effort)]; 2) anxiety (items 5+7+9+11) - 4 [range 0 (no dyspnea anxiety) - 16 (worst dyspnea anxiety)]; 3) discomfort [15 - (items 1+2+3) {range 0 (no dyspnea discomfort) - 12 (worst dyspnea discomfort)}]. The total dyspnea score is derived by adding the total subscale scores. The subscale score subtractions are to make adjustments for 0 as a state of absence of dyspnea (thus total dyspnea summary scores range from 0 to 42).

Both cancer-related and general worry were measured with 3 item scales. Cancer-related worry had three statements asking about level of worry related to diagnosis, treatment, and worry interference using a 1 = "not at all" to 5 = "most or all the time" scale, range 3-15. Items are summed. General worry used an abbreviated brief Penn State Worry questionnaire with 3 statements that measure how typical that statements are in describing the person. Uses a 3 item scale with 1 = "not at all typical" to 5 = "very typical". the range is 3-15. Items are summed.

The PSSQ_I has 13 self rated questions. The first 5 items, used to determine sleep quality (presence; frequency of insomnia problems) are rated [0 = never to 5 = always, 5-7 days per week; (range 0-25)] and items 6 to 13 are aimed at identifying the degree of interference experienced from sleep impairment (rated 0=not at all to 4=extremely on Likert scale; range 0 - 32).

Description of all measures are described elsewhere. Provided are the means and standard deviations for baseline comparisons.