• J Palliat Med · Feb 2005

    Evaluation of the Missoula-VITAS Quality of Life Index--revised: research tool or clinical tool?

    • Carolyn E Schwartz, Melanie P Merriman, George Reed, and Ira Byock.
    • QualityMetric Incorporated, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA. xschwartz@qualitymetric.com
    • J Palliat Med. 2005 Feb 1; 8 (1): 121-35.

    BackgroundQuality of life (QOL) is a central outcome measure in caring for seriously ill patients. The Missoula-VITAS Quality of Life Index (MVQOLI) is a 25-item patient-centered index that weights each of five QOL dimensions (symptoms, function, interpersonal, wellbeing, transcendence) by its importance to the respondent. The measure has been used to assess QOL for hospice patients, and has been found to be somewhat complex to use and analyze.ObjectiveThis study aimed to simplify the measure, and evaluate the reliability and validity of a revised version as either a research or clinical tool (i.e., "psychometric" versus "clinimetric").DesignTwo data collection efforts are described. The psychometric study collected QOL data from 175 patients at baseline, 3-5 days, and 21 days later. The implementation study evaluated the feasibility and utility of the MVQOLI-R during over six weeks of use.Setting/SubjectsEnd-stage renal patients on dialysis, hospice, or long-term care patients participated in the psychometric study. The implementation study was done in hospice, home health, and palliative care settings.MeasurementsThe MVQOLI-R and the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale.ResultsThe psychometric and implementation studies suggest that the MVQOLI-R performs well as a clinical tool but is not powerful as an outcome research instrument. The MVQOLI-R has the heterogeneous structure of clinimetric tools, and demonstrated both relevance and responsiveness. Additionally, in a clinical setting the MVQOLI-R was useful therapeutically for stimulating communication about the psychosocial and spiritual issues important to the tasks of life completion and life closure.ConclusionsThe MVQOLI-R has clinical utility as a patient QOL assessment tool and may have therapeutic utility as a tool for fostering discussion among patients and their clinicians, as well as for helping patients identify sources of suffering and opportunities during this time in their lives.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…