Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation
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The impact of pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial (pNTM) disease on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has not received significant attention in the literature. In this study, we compared the HRQoL in patients with pNTM disease and healthy subjects and identified influencing factors using EuroQol 5D (EQ-5D) data. ⋯ This study suggested the EQ-5D may not be useful instrument in pNTM patients due to ceiling effect of EQ-5D and mild disease activity. Patients with pNTM disease tended to report more reduced health status and more problems with anxiety/depression than the healthy controls. Lung function, measured by FEV1, was independently associated with EQ-5D scores in patients with pNTM disease.
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Disability data inform resource allocation and utilization, characterize functioning and changes over time, and provide a mechanism to monitor progress toward promoting and protecting the rights of individuals with disability. Data collection efforts, however, define and measure disability in varied ways. Our objective was to see how the content of disability measures differed in five US national surveys and over time. ⋯ This research successfully illustrated demonstrated the utility of the ICF in examining the content of disability measures in five national surveys and over time.
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Although the use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROs) has increased markedly, clinical interpretation of scores remains lacking. We developed a method to identify clinical severity thresholds for pain, fatigue, depression, and anxiety in people with cancer. ⋯ The study results provide empirically generated PROMIS T score thresholds that differentiate levels of symptom severity for pain interference, fatigue, anxiety, and depression. The convergence of clinical judgment with self-reported patient severity scores supports the validity of this methodology to derive clinically relevant symptom severity levels for PROMIS symptom measures in other settings.
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The purpose of this study was to assess the invariance of a culturally competent multi-lingual unmet needs survey. ⋯ The study highlights the intricacies in designing a culturally competent survey that can be applied to culturally and linguistically diverse groups across different treatment contexts. Overall, the results demonstrate that this survey is somewhat invariant with respect to these factors. Future refinements are suggested to enhance the survey's cultural competence and general validity.
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Fatigue is one of the most prevalent and significant symptoms experienced by breast cancer patients. This study aimed to investigate potential population heterogeneity in fatigue symptoms of the patients using the innovative non-normal mixture modeling. ⋯ The non-normal factor mixture models suggest two distinct subgroups of patients on their fatigue symptoms. The presence of the exhausted class with exacerbated symptoms calls for a proactive assessment of the symptoms and development of tailored interventions for this subgroup.