Health Qual Life Out
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2011
Comparative StudyCombined life satisfaction of persons with stroke and their caregivers: associations with caregiver burden and the impact of stroke.
Little is known about the life satisfaction of the person with stroke combined with their caregiver, i.e. the dyad, despite the fact that life satisfaction is an important rehabilitation outcome. The aim of this study was to describe the dyads combined life satisfaction and to understand this in relationship to the perceived impact of stroke in everyday life and caregiver burden. ⋯ Measuring combined life satisfaction provides a unique focus and appears to be a feasible way of attaining the dyads' perspective. The findings suggest that those dyads with a discordant life satisfaction could be vulnerable because of the caregivers' reported caregiver burden. These findings support the importance of a dyadic perspective and add to the understanding of the reciprocal influences between the caregiver and recipient. This knowledge has clinical implications and contributes to the identification of possible vulnerable dyads in need of tailored support.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2011
Comparative StudyComparison of health-related quality of life measures in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The aims of this study were: (1) to compare the discriminative ability of a disease-specific instrument, the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) to generic instruments (i.e., EQ-5D and SF-36); and (2), to evaluate the strength of associations among clinical and health-related quality of life (HRQL) measures in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). ⋯ The SGRQ demonstrated greater ability to discriminate among different levels of severity stages of COPD than generic measures of health, suggestive that SGRQ may provide COPD studies with greater statistical power than EQ-5D and SF-36 summary scores to capture meaningful differences in clinical severity.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2011
Reliability and validity of the Spanish version of the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (10-item CD-RISC) in young adults.
The 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (10-item CD-RISC) is an instrument for measuring resilience that has shown good psychometric properties in its original version in English. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Spanish version of the 10-item CD-RISC in young adults and to verify whether it is structured in a single dimension as in the original English version. ⋯ The Spanish version of the 10-item CD-RISC showed good psychometric properties in young adults and thus can be used as a reliable and valid instrument for measuring resilience. Our study confirmed that a single factor underlies the resilience construct, as was the case of the original scale in English.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2011
Implementing patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) in palliative care--users' cry for help.
Patient-reported outcome measurement (PROM) plays an increasingly important role in palliative care. A variety of measures exists and is used in clinical care, audit and research. However, little is known about professionals' views using these measures. The aim of this study is to describe the use and experiences of palliative care professionals with outcome measures. ⋯ Professionals need more support for the use and implementation of PROMs in clinical practice and research through training and guidance in order to improve patient care.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2011
Multicenter Study Comparative StudyQuality of life among patients receiving palliative care in South Africa and Uganda: a multi-centred study.
Quality of life (QOL) is a core outcome of palliative care, yet in African settings there is a lack of evidence on patients' levels of QOL. We aimed to describe QOL among patients with incurable, progressive disease receiving palliative care in South Africa and Uganda, to compare QOL in cancer and HIV, to determine how domains of QOL correlate with overall QOL, and compare levels of QOL in this population with those in other studies using the same tool. ⋯ Feeling at peace and having a sense of meaning in life were more important to patients than being active or physical comfort, and spiritual wellbeing correlated most highly with overall QOL. It is therefore vital to identify and meet the psychological and spiritual care needs of patients, as well as to assess and treat pain and other symptoms. Our finding that patients scored most poorly on the Function domain warrants further research.