Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation
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Comparative Study
Health-related quality of life associated with chronic conditions in eight countries: results from the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project.
Few studies and no international comparisons have examined the impact of multiple chronic conditions on populations using a comprehensive health-related quality of life (HRQL) questionnaire. ⋯ Arthritis has the highest HRQL impact in the general population of the countries studied due to the combination of a high deviation score on physical scales and a high frequency. Impact of chronic conditions on HRQL was similar roughly across countries, despite important variation in prevalence. The use of HRQL measures such as the SF-36 should be useful to better characterize the global burden of disease.
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Emphasis is currently being placed on the need for quality of life in cancer survivors. There is a great need to identify an appropriate tool for quality of life estimation in these linguistically and culturally different settings. ⋯ Despite cultural variations, the local Malayalam language version of the FACT-G scale was found to be reliable like the source scale and sensitive cross-culturally. The instrument makes it possible to identify domains influencing QOL and thereby may help direct interventions to them.
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Chronic oral disadvantage, a measure of long-term decrements in oral health-related quality of life.
Few studies have investigated the relation between oral health-related quality of life (HRQL) and key demographic, socioeconomic, and oral health decrements. ⋯ A large proportion of subjects avoided certain daily activities due to oral health decrements for longer than 6 months. Recent dental visits were significantly associated with limitation of long-term progression of oral disadvantage.
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Comparative Study
Validation of the German version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) in childhood cancer patients off treatment and children with epilepsy.
The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) is a relatively new instrument developed in the US to assess health-related quality of life (HRQL) in healthy and ill children and adolescents. It is quick and easy to use, suitable for assessment by children and parents and based on a modular approach with a generic measure addressing all general domains of HRQL and disease-specific modules. We report here the results of translating the original US generic core instrument and the cancer module into German and testing the German PedsQL in samples of paediatric patients who have been treated for cancer or epilepsy. ⋯ Clinical validity was confirmed by differences between the cancer and epilepsy groups in the expected direction and by the ability of the PedsQL to discriminate between subjects with different degrees of medical and psychosocial sequelae. Comparing our findings to US results, the German PedsQL seems to be equivalent to the original version. Future methodologic research should evaluate construct validity, sensitivity and responsiveness, and test the usefulness of the instrument in other clinical populations and healthy children.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Responsiveness of the EuroQol (EQ 5-D) and the SF-36 in elderly patients with displaced femoral neck fractures.
To evaluate the responsiveness of the EuroQol (EQ-5D) and Short-Form 36 (SF-36) instruments, i.e. their ability to capture clinically important changes, in elderly patients with a displaced femoral neck fracture. The study was part of a prospective randomised study comparing two different surgical procedures, internal fixation (IF) and total hip replacement (THP). ⋯ The results showed high responsiveness for both the EQ-5D and the SF-36, indicating that both instruments are suitable for use as outcome measures in clinical trials in elderly hip fracture patients.