Health Qual Life Out
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2006
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyHydroxyurea and sickle cell anemia: effect on quality of life.
The Multicenter Study of Hydroxyurea (HU) in Sickle Cell Anemia (MSH) previously showed that daily oral HU reduces painful sickle cell (SS) crises by 50% in patients with moderate to severe disease. The morbidity associated with this disease is known to have serious negative impact on the overall quality of life(QOL) of affected individuals. ⋯ Treatment of SS with HU improves some aspects of QOL in adult patients who already suffer from moderate-to-severe SS.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2006
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyComparison of the SF-6D and the EQ-5D in patients with coronary heart disease.
The SF-6D was derived from the SF-36. A single summary score is obtained allegedly preserving the descriptive richness and sensitivity to change of the SF-36 into utility measurement. We compared the SF-6D and EQ-5D on domain content, scoring distribution, pre-treatment and change scores. ⋯ Although both instruments appear to measure similar constructs, the EQ-5D and SF-6D are quite different. The low agreement and the differences in median values, scoring range and sensitivity to change after intervention show that the EQ-5D and SF-6D yield incomparable scores in patients with coronary heart disease.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2006
The PedsQL Present Functioning Visual Analogue Scales: preliminary reliability and validity.
The PedsQL Present Functioning Visual Analogue Scales (PedsQL VAS) were designed as an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) instrument to rapidly measure present or at-the-moment functioning in children and adolescents. The PedsQL VAS assess child self-report and parent-proxy report of anxiety, sadness, anger, worry, fatigue, and pain utilizing six developmentally appropriate visual analogue scales based on the well-established Varni/Thompson Pediatric Pain Questionnaire (PPQ) Pain Intensity VAS format. ⋯ The results demonstrate preliminary test-retest and internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the PedsQL Present Functioning VAS instrument for both pediatric patient self-report and parent proxy-report. Further field testing is required to extend these initial findings to other ecologically relevant pediatric environments.
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If decisions on health care spending are to be as rational and objective as possible, knowledge on cost-effectiveness of routine care is essential. Our aim, therefore, was to evaluate the cost-utility of routine cataract surgery in a real-world setting. ⋯ Mean utility gain after routine cataract surgery in a real-world setting was relatively small and confined mostly to patients whose both eyes were operated. The cost of cataract surgery per quality-adjusted life year gained was much higher than previously reported and associated with considerable uncertainty.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2006
Comparative StudyShort forms of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire for 11-14-year-old children (CPQ11-14): development and initial evaluation.
The Child Perceptions Questionnaire for children aged 11 to 14 years (CPQ11-14) is a 37-item measure of oral-health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) encompassing four domains: oral symptoms, functional limitations, emotional and social well-being. To facilitate its use in clinical settings and population-based health surveys, it was shortened to 16 and 8 items. Item impact and stepwise regression methods were used to produce each version. This paper describes the developmental process, compares the discriminative properties of the resulting four short-forms and evaluates their precision relative to the original CPQ11-14. ⋯ All short forms demonstrated excellent criterion validity and good construct validity. The reliability coefficients exceeded standards for group-level comparisons. However, these are preliminary findings based on the convenience sampling and further testing in replicated studies involving clinical and general samples of children in various settings is necessary to establish measurement sensitivity and discriminative properties of these questionnaires.