Health Qual Life Out
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2010
Unmet needs, quality of life and support networks of people with dementia living at home.
There is lack of evidence about the unmet needs of people with dementia (PWD) living at home and the predictors of high levels of unmet needs. The main aim of this study was to identify the relationship between unmet needs, social networks and quality of life of PWD living at home. ⋯ Interventions aiming to reduce unmet needs, through the treatment of behavioural and psychological symptoms and the involvement of PWD in the community, would potentially improve PWD's quality of life.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2010
Health-related quality of life in vacuum-assisted breast biopsy: short-term effects, long-term effects and predictors.
The impact of Vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (VABB, 11-Gauge) upon Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) remains an open field. This study aims to: i) assess short-term (4 days after VABB) responses in terms of HRQoL after VABB, ii) evaluate long-term (18 months after VABB) responses, if any, and iii) examine whether these responses are modified by a variety of possible predictors (anthropometric, sociodemographic, lifestyle habits, breast-related parameters, reproductive history, VABB-related features and complications, seasonality). ⋯ The HRQoL profile of patients suggests that VABB exerts effects prior to its performance at a psychological level, immediately after its performance at a functioning-physical level and entails long-term effects associated with pain.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2010
Response shift, recall bias and their effect on measuring change in health-related quality of life amongst older hospital patients.
Assessments of change in subjective patient reported outcomes such as health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are a key component of many clinical and research evaluations. However, conventional longitudinal evaluation of change may not agree with patient perceived change if patients' understanding of the subjective construct under evaluation changes over time (response shift) or if patients' have inaccurate recollection (recall bias). This study examined whether older adults' perception of change is in agreement with conventional longitudinal evaluation of change in their HRQoL over the duration of their hospital stay. It also investigated this level of agreement after adjusting patient perceived change for recall bias that patients may have experienced. ⋯ Agreement between conventional change and patient perceived change was not strong. A large proportion of this disagreement could be attributed to recall bias. To overcome the invalidating effect of response shift (on conventional change) and recall bias (on patient perceived change) a method of adjusting patient perceived change for recall bias has been described.