145 8 remain zero. Addition of the coefficients will lead to an increase or decrease of the estimated SWAL-QOL subscale. This formula can be used to estimate the QoL of patients during the follow-up period. For each time point, the formula was filled with average variable values for significant coefficients, as calculated by a restricted maximum likelihood approach. All analyses were performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 (Chicago, IL). A p-value <0.05 for the descriptive statistics and <0.10 for the linear mixed-effects model were considered statistically significant. Results Among the 739 patients participating in the NET-QUBIC research, 603 patients filled in the questionnaire at least once during the 2-year follow-up and were included in the LMM analyses. At baseline, 553 patients completed the SWAL-QOL questionnaire, 516 at 3 months, 464 at 6 months, 427 at 12 months, and 374 at 24 months (Figure 1). No significant differences were observed between patients that responded to the SWAL-QOL questionnaire and the total NET-QUBIC population (Table 1). Based on the SWAL-QOL cutoff score of ≥14, 53% of patients had problems before treatment, which increased to 70% at 3 months after treatment, and decreased to 59% at 6 months after treatment, 50% at 12 months after treatment, and 48% at 24 months after treatment. Mean SWAL-QOL outcomes The total score and subscales ‘general burden’, ‘eating desire’, and ‘social functioning’ showed higher mean scores for all patients 3 months after treatment (indicating more problems), after which these scores returned to baseline at 6 months after treatment and beyond (Figure 2). There was no change over time in ‘fear of eating’. The subscales ‘food selection’ and ‘symptoms’ took longer to return to baseline levels, indicated by the significant differences at 6 months after treatment. ‘Mental health’ was higher 3 months after treatment, and lower at 24 months after treatment in comparison to baseline. ‘Eating duration’ increased from baseline to 3 months after treatment, remained significantly worse 6 months after treatment, and did not return to baseline 12 and 24 months after treatment. Because the total score and all subscales of the SWAL-QOL returned to baseline, except the subscale ‘eating duration’, the focus of the subsequent linear mixed model was on this subscale.
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