While the psychosocial effects of advanced head and neck cancer surgery on patients are well documented, less is known about the effects of this devastating illness on the marital relationship or on the quality of line (QOL) of the spouse. Because spouses are the main support for cancer patients, their experience is important to understand. The purpose of this study is to improve our understanding of variations in QOL in head and neck cancer patients and their spouses during the first five years after surgery. Specifically, the study is designed to determine the relative importance of patient and spouse individual variables (age, gender, depression, stigma, and sense of coherence), illness related variables (disease severity, time since initial surgery, use of radiation, and recurrence of disease), and dyadic variables (mutuality and dyadic adjustment) in predicting quality of life for both the patients and the spouse. Participants will be recruited from a Tumor Registry of patients who have had surgery for head and neck cancer (stages II, III, or IV) within the past 5 years. Questionnaires will be mailed to patients (n=167) and their spouses (n=167), along with a participant information sheet explaining the study and letter of physician support. The quantitative data from self-report questionnaires will be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, namely Person's product moment correlation and hierarchical multiple regression.
