Health Qual Life Out
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2012
Comparative StudyComparison of health-related quality of life among patients using atypical antipsychotics for treatment of depression: results from the National Health and Wellness Survey.
Use of atypical antipsychotics (AA) in combination with an antidepressant is recommended as an augmentation strategy for patients with depression. However, there is a paucity of data comparing aripiprazole and other AAs in terms of patient reported outcomes. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the levels of HRQoL and health utility scores in patients with depression using aripiprazole compared with patients using olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone and ziprasidone. ⋯ Comparison of patients taking aripiprazole with a cohort of patients using another AA for depression demonstrated that aripiprazole was independently associated with better (both statistically and clinically) HRQoL and health utilities.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2012
Rasch analysis of the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale (mini-MAC) among a heterogeneous sample of long-term cancer survivors: a cross-sectional study.
The mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale (mini-MAC) is a well-recognised, popular measure of coping in psycho-oncology and assesses five cancer-specific coping strategies. It has been suggested that these five subscales could be grouped to form the over-arching adaptive and maladptive coping subscales to facilitate the interpretation and clinical application of the scale. Despite the popularity of the mini-MAC, few studies have examined its psychometric properties among long-term cancer survivors, and further validation of the mini-MAC is needed to substantiate its use with the growing population of survivors. Therefore, this study examined the psychometric properties and dimensionality of the mini-MAC in a sample of long-term cancer survivors using Rasch analysis. ⋯ The original five subscales required item deletion and/or rescaling to improve goodness of fit to the Rasch model. While evidence was found for overarching subscales of adaptive and maladaptive coping, extensive modifications were necessary to achieve this result. Further exploration and validation of over-arching subscales assessing adaptive and maladaptive coping is necessary with cancer survivors.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2012
Clinical TrialThe Anti-Clot Treatment Scale (ACTS) in clinical trials: cross-cultural validation in venous thromboembolism patients.
The Anti-Clot Treatment Scale (ACTS) is a 15-item patient-reported instrument of satisfaction with anticoagulant treatment. It includes a 12-item ACTS Burdens scale and a 3-item ACTS Benefits scale. Its role in clinical trials and other settings should be supported by evidence that it is both clinically meaningful and scientifically sound. The aim of the study was to evaluate the measurement performance of the ACTS (Dutch, Italian, French, German and English language versions) in patients with venous thromboembolism based on traditional psychometric methods. ⋯ Both the ACTS Burdens and ACTS Benefits scales consistently satisfied traditional reliability and validity criteria across multiple language datasets, supporting it as a clinically useful patient-reported instrument of satisfaction with anticoagulant treatment in clinical trials.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2012
Correlations between disease-specific and generic health status questionnaires in patients with advanced COPD: a one-year observational study.
Longitudinal studies analyzing the correlations between disease-specific and generic health status questionnaires at different time points in patients with advanced COPD are lacking. The aim of this study was to determine whether and to what extent a disease-specific health status questionnaire (Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire, SGRQ) correlates with generic health status questionnaires (EuroQol-5-Dimensions, EQ-5D; Assessment of Quality of Life instrument, AQoL; Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey, SF-36) at four different time points in patients with advanced COPD; and to determine the correlation between the changes in these questionnaires during one-year follow-up. ⋯ At four, eight and 12 months after baseline, SGRQ total scores and EQ-5D index scores, AQoL total scores and SF-36 PCS scores were moderately to strongly correlated, while SGRQ total scores were weakly correlated with SF-36 MCS scores. The correlations between changes over time were weak or even absent. Disease-specific health status questionnaires and generic health status questionnaires should be used together to gain complete insight in health status and changes in health status over time in patients with advanced COPD.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyThe validity and precision of the Leicester Cough Questionnaire in COPD patients with chronic cough.
A validated instrument to assess the effects of chronic cough on health status in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is currently not available. The Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) is a cough-specific health status questionnaire which is originally validated for a population of general patients presenting with chronic cough. We examined the psychometric performance of the LCQ in patients with COPD and chronic productive cough. ⋯ The LCQ is a valid, reliable, responsive instrument to measure health status in COPD patients with chronic productive cough.