Health Qual Life Out
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2012
Factors associated with non-response in routine use of patient reported outcome measures after elective surgery in England.
Patient-reported outcome measures are increasingly being used to compare providers. We studied whether non-response rates to post-operative questionnaires are associated with patients' characteristics and organisational features of providers. ⋯ If non-response can be shown to be associated with outcome, then rates of non-response to post-operative questionnaires would need to be taken into account when these measures are being used to compare the performance of providers or to evaluate surgical procedures.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2012
Posttraumatic growth, depressive symptoms, posttraumatic stress symptoms, post-migration stressors and quality of life in multi-traumatized psychiatric outpatients with a refugee background in Norway.
Psychiatric outpatients with a refugee background have often been exposed to a variety of potentially traumatizing events, with numerous negative consequences for their mental health and quality of life. However, some patients also report positive personal changes, posttraumatic growth, related to these potentially traumatic events. This study describes posttraumatic growth, posttraumatic stress symptoms, depressive symptoms, post-migration stressors, and their association with quality of life in an outpatient psychiatric population with a refugee background in Norway. ⋯ Multi-traumatized refugees in outpatient clinics reported both symptoms of psychopathology and posttraumatic growth after exposure to multiple traumatic events. Symptoms of psychopathology were negatively related to the quality of life, and positively related to post-migration stressors such as unemployment, weak social network and poor social integration. Posttraumatic growth was positively associated with quality of life, and negatively associated with post-migration stressors. Hierarchical regression modeling showed that posttraumatic growth explained more of the variance in quality of life than did posttraumatic stress symptoms, depressive symptoms or unemployment. It may therefore be necessary to address both positive changes and psychopathological symptoms when assessing and treating multi-traumatized outpatients with a refugee background.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2012
The Barretos short instrument for assessment of quality of life (BSIqol): development and preliminary validation in a cohort of cancer patients undergoing antineoplastic treatment.
To be clinically useful, an instrument assessing health-related quality of life (HRQOL) should be easy to understand and quick to answer. Few instruments have been designed to be short, simple, and easily understandable by patients from all educational levels. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a brief general instrument developed to assess HRQOL. ⋯ BSIqol seems to be a straightforward and useful instrument for rapidly assessing HRQOL from cancer patients. Further studies are necessary to evaluate BSIqol in different populations and also to assess its responsiveness and define its minimal clinically important differences.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2012
Health-related quality of life (HRQL) for individuals with self-reported chronic physical and/or mental health conditions: panel survey of an adult sample in the United States.
In the US, approximately 53% of adults have at least one chronic condition. Comorbid physical and mental health conditions often have an incremental negative impact on health-related quality of life (HRQL). Primary study objectives were to quantify the impact on HRQL of a) ≥ 1 physical condition , b) ≥ 1 comorbid mental health conditions added to a physical one, c) ≥ 1 mental health condition, and d) ≥ 1 comorbid physical conditions added to at least one related to mental health. Decrements were based on a "Healthy" reference group reporting no chronic conditions. ⋯ Results provide quantitative information for US adults on specific PCS and MCS score decrements associated with a comorbid condition related to mental health, as well as a comorbid condition related to physical health.