Health Qual Life Out
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2010
Personality and the physician-patient relationship as predictors of quality of life of cardiac patients after rehabilitation.
Numerous studies document the influence of psychosocial variables on the course of coronary heart disease. This study examines the influence of personality traits (trait anger, cynicism) and aspects of the physician-patient relationship (promoting patient participation by the physician, active communication behavior of the patient, trust in the physician) on the health related quality of life (HRQOL) of cardiac patients after rehabilitation. ⋯ Low income, a high level of trait anger, and low patient participation are significant risk factors, even if a number of potential confounders are adjusted. Research is needed that shows which causal pathway low income functions on and what therapies in rehabilitation can mitigate the disadvantage of persons with a high level of trait anger. The providers should implement measures to actively integrate rehabilitation patients in treatment (e.g. encourage them to ask questions).
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2010
Multicenter Study Comparative StudyComparison of numerical and verbal rating scales to measure pain exacerbations in patients with chronic cancer pain.
Numerical rating scales (NRS), and verbal rating scales (VRS) showed to be reliable and valid tools for subjective cancer pain measurement, but no one of them consistently proved to be superior to the other. Aim of the present study is to compare NRS and VRS performance in assessing breakthrough or episodic pain (BP-EP) exacerbations. ⋯ Our results suggest that, in the measurement of cancer pain exacerbations, patients use NRS more appropriately than VRS and as such NRS should be preferred to VRS in this patient's population.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2010
ReviewMeasuring the psychosocial health of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors: a critical review.
Adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors require psychometrically rigorous measures to assess their psychosocial well-being. Without methodologically adequate scales the accuracy of information obtained on the prevalence of needs, predictors of risk, and the potential success of any interventions, can be questioned. This review assessed the psychometric properties of measures designed specifically to identify the psychosocial health of this unique population. ⋯ There is a need to further evaluate the psychometric properties of existing quality of life measures for AYA cancer survivors. Valid, reliable, and acceptable measures which can assess the psychosocial needs of this population should also be developed.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2010
Multicenter StudyPsychometric properties of the Brief Pain Inventory among patients with osteoarthritis undergoing total hip replacement surgery.
Pain is a cardinal symptom of osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip and important for deciding when to operate. This study assessed the internal consistency reliability, validity and responsiveness of the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) among patients with OA undergoing total hip replacement (THR). ⋯ The BPI showed acceptable reliability, construct validity and responsiveness in patients with OA undergoing THR. BPI is short and therefore is easy to use and score, though the instrument offers few advantages over and duplicates scales of more comprehensive instruments, such as the WOMAC and SF-36.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2010
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyReference bias: presentation of extreme health states prior to EQ-VAS improves health-related quality of life scores. a randomised cross-over trial.
Clinical practice and clinical research has made a concerted effort to move beyond the use of clinical indicators alone and embrace patient focused care through the use of patient reported outcomes such as health-related quality of life. However, unless patients give consistent consideration to the health states that give meaning to measurement scales used to evaluate these constructs, longitudinal comparison of these measures may be invalid. This study aimed to investigate whether patients give consideration to a standard health state rating scale (EQ-VAS) and whether consideration of good and poor health state descriptors immediately changes their self-report. ⋯ Health state self-reports may not be well considered. An immediate significant shift in response can be elicited by exposure to a mere description of an extreme health state despite no actual change in underlying health state occurring. Caution should be exercised in research and clinical settings when interpreting subjective patient reported outcomes that are dependent on brief anchors for meaning.