Effect of Telephone Follow‐up on the Physical Well‐Being Dimension of Quality of Life in Patients with Cancer

Objective. To evaluate the effect of telephone follow‐up on the physical wellbeing dimension of health‐related quality of life in patients with cancer. Design. Randomized, controlled trial. Setting. Public teaching hospital. Patients. One hundred fifty patients with cancer who were discharged to home from the hospital. Intervention. Patients received a telephone follow‐up call 48–72 hours after discharge. Information was solicited regarding drug‐related (and other) problems. Problems were addressed, and advice and support were given. Measurements and Main Results. Analysis of variance revealed no differences in the physical well‐being dimension of health‐related quality of life between patients who received telephone follow‐up and a control group who did not. Sixty‐eight percent of the follow‐up group and 40% of the control group (p=0.007) reported having had at least one contact with a health professional. Conclusion. One possible explanation for the lack of effect of the intervention is that high‐risk patients in the control group received a similar intervention from other health care professionals. We suggest that telephone follow‐up be coordinated among health professionals.