Many researchers use observed questionnaire scores to evaluate score reliability and to make
conclusions and inferences regarding quality-of-life outcomes. The amount of false alarms from medical diagnoses
that would be avoided if observed scores were substituted with expected scores is interesting, and understanding
these differences is important for the care of cancer patients. Using expected scores to estimate the reliability of 95%
confidence intervals (CIs) is rarely reported in published papers. We investigated the reliability of patient responses to a
quality-of-life questionnaire and made recommendations for future studies of the quality of life of patients.