This study shows that self-responsibility and self-control are meaningful values in the activities and decisions of everyday life. Dignity and being respected as an individual are closely connected to being able to manage on one's own and being independent of others' help. The study also shows that including other people ...

BACKGROUND: Concerns about patient safety have arisen with growing documentation of the extent and nature of harm. Yet there are no robust and meaningful data that can be used internationally to assess the extent of the problem and considerable methodological difficulties. PURPOSE: This article describes a project undertaken as part ...

OBJECTIVE: The patient-based evaluation of outcome is gaining increased importance. The aim of the study was to demonstrate the reliability, validity and responsiveness of the German version of the Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment Questionnaire (SMFA-D) in patients undergoing surgical or conservative treatment. METHODS: Three hundred and thirty-two patients suffering from ...

Background. Thanks to modern methods of diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation, we currently possess the means to counteract the consequences of osteoprosis and limit the number of falls in osteoporotic patients. Material and methods. Based on an original questionnaire, we analyzed a group of 54 patients (48 women and 6 men) ...

The SRS-22 questionnaire is specifically designed for the assessment of quality of life in spinal deformity patients. This study is the first to use it to assess the quality of life of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients under brace treatment and compares the results with an observational group matched by age ...

OBJECTIVE: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important measure of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) health outcome. The Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ) comprising 32 items grouped into four dimensions is a widely used IBD-specific HRQoL instrument. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity, reliability and responsiveness ...

This study follows previous work to determine the effect of patient insight and cognitive impairment on the reliability and validity of self-reported quality of life (QOL) from patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). AD and MCI patients (N = 68) and their caregivers participated. Patients ...

Patients' responses to quality-of-life questionnaires are dependent on the cultural milieu. The aims of this study were to translate the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Quality of Life questionnaire, which was developed in the West, into Korean and to validate the translated questionnaire in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Translation of the ...

CONTEXT: It is not known to what extent quality of life of patients treated for acromegaly is dependent on levels of GH and IGF-I attained. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to examine the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and its dependence on treatment outcome and modality in a ...

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the voice impairment across the physical, emotional, and functional domains in patients using valved speech following total laryngectomy with the help of two symptom specific scales. The study design used was a cross-sectional cohort. The setting was the ...

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effect of balneotherapy on physical activity and quality of life as well as the symptoms of pain and stiffness with exercise alone in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients. METHODS: A total of 60 patients who had a diagnosis of AS according to the modified New York criteria ...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder involving both upper and lower motor neurons, leading inexorably to death within a few years. Although our understanding of the pathogenesis of this disease has grown at a very fast rate in recent years, we do not yet have effective treatment options ...

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to identify the direct causes of death and to evaluate the presence of burdensome symptoms in the last two days of life of terminally ill nursing home (NH) patients. METHODS: Prospective study of patients with a maximum life-expectancy of six weeks in 16 ...

Therapy with RBC transfusions and rHuEPO for management of anemia in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes causes recurrent fluctuations in hemoglobin levels. The purpose of this study was to elaborate a mathematical model for the interpretation of hemoglobin fluctuations and to correlate the resulting numerical parameter (Variaglobin Index) with quality of ...

INTRODUCTION: Since 2003, immunoglobulin preparations have been approved for subcutaneous (s.c.) use in Germany. Although all our adult patients on intravenous (i.v.) substitution were offered to switch to s.c. home therapy, approximately half of them refused to change. METHODS: To evaluate patients' attitude towards s.c. home therapy, a questionnaire was ...

BACKGROUND: The natural history of untreated inguinal hernia (IH) is poorly understood. Whether a delay in operative repair of IH leads to excessive physical suffering or significant psychosocial impairment is not known. This study attempts to quantify the morbidity of patients with IH by assessing their quality of life (QOL) ...

BACKGROUND: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the fourth most frequent diagnosis in psychiatry. Patients with OCD suffer from obsessive thinking and compulsive behavior, which impact their everyday life negatively. OBJECTIVE: Subjective quality of life (QoL) in patients with OCD was examined and compared to the general German population and to patients ...

STUDY DESIGN: Prospective study of patients with subacute osteoporotic fracture (SOF) or chronic low back pain (CLBP). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate reliability, validity, and responsiveness of a purposefully brief outcome instrument. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: A minimum standardized "core set" was proposed for monitoring patients with low back pain in 1998, ...

Fatigue is common in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and has great impact on functional ability and daily activity. Although anaemia is associated with fatigue, the relationship between fatigue and anaemia is unclear in CHF. The aim of this study was to describe the fatigue experience and its relationship ...

In this series of case vignettes, the authors have emphasized that the diagnosis of functional symptoms should normally rest on the presence of positive evidence of the problem being functional rather than the absence of evidence of organic disease. In addition, practitioners should be prepared to make a functional diagnosis ...

Juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) is a multisystem inflammatory disease of unknown etiology that affects primarily the skin and muscles. Although the prognosis of JDM has improved considerably in the last three decades, a number of patients may develop irreversible damage due to the disease activity or its treatment. This damage may ...

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients commonly suffer from fatigue and define it as one of their most disabling symptom profoundly disrupting their lives. However, the relationship of fatigue to cognitive functions and its impact on quality of life have not been widely studied. AIM: To define (1) "cognitive fatigue", (2) ...

Quality of Life was assessed by the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire in 61 patients with Chronic Systolic Heart Failure secondary to Chagas' cardiomyopathy. Mean total score was 37.3+/-21.4, mean physical dimension score 15.3+/-9.9 and mean emotional dimension score 7.4+/-5.2. A negative correlation between total score and hemoglobin levels, ...

Objectives.  To study the impact of personality traits on the effect of neurostimulation in patients with chest pain and normal coronary arteries. Materials and Methods.  Using the Dutch personality questionnaire, we retrospectively studied the personality traits in 33 patients treated with neurostimulation, either transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation or spinal cord ...

OBJECTIVES: To continuously assess overall quality of life (QOL) and disease progression in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at different stages of the disease and compare the results between these two variables. DESIGN/SUBJECTS: Twenty-six patients with ALS were interviewed with a questionnaire to assess their QOL from 0 to ...

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Many chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients are dissatisfied with the information they are given. A brief questionnaire completed prior to the clinical encounter would assist health professionals identify areas of information need. DESIGN: Ten focus groups of 59 patients assisted in the process of questionnaire construction. Three ...

Patients with chronic urticaria have a poor quality of life (QOL). Chronic pruritus with variable appearance of urticaria and/or angioedema are typical of the uncertainty that compromise their QOL. Other issues such as fatigue, cost of therapy, and social isolation further contribute to the frustration that patients experience. Various instruments ...

OBJECTIVE: To develop a self-assessment questionnaire and estimate its validity in the evaluation of disease status in patients with systemic sclerosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The developed questionnaire (SAQ) consists of 23 questions divided into four groups related to symptoms of vascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal dysfunction. One hundred and five ...

BACKGROUND: We found no information in the literature regarding the relationship between patient and physician-derived outcome assessments with a shoulder questionnaire. In this study, we examined a group of patients who were assessed with patient and physician-administered questionnaires following shoulder arthroplasty. METHODS: From August 2003 to February 2004, sixty-seven consecutive ...

AIM: To determine the prevalence of typical symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease in a large group of patients consulting their general practitioners (GP) for diverse reasons, as well as the quality-of-life (QoL) of patients with such symptoms. PATIENTS AND METHODS: During the same day, participating GPs (N=3 200) systematically asked ...

OBJECTIVES: To examine the olfactory function in patients with laryngectomy and to assess the results of the Nasal Airflow-Inducing Maneuver (NAIM) odor-rehabilitation technique. DESIGN: A prospective intervention study. SETTING: University hospital. PATIENTS: Twenty-four patients, 21 men and 3 women, mean age 68 years, who underwent laryngectomy at least 5 months ...

BACKGROUND: Peginterferon alpha-2a (40 kDa) plus ribavirin is equally effective in chronic hepatitis C patients with normal or elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) values. This analysis, in patients with normal ALT levels, compared health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measurements between untreated control patients and treated patients grouped by virological response. HRQoL ...

BACKGROUND: An anti-anemia drug may improve self-reported quality of life (QOL) partly because patients know their hemoglobin level is rising. In the absence of any published studies on this topic, the authors investigated the association between knowledge of hemoglobin levels and self-reported QOL. METHODS: The study analyzed health-related QOL (HRQOL) ...

OBJECTIVE: The use of biological agents in the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) has emphasized the need for information about the current burden of the disease to estimate the cost-effectiveness of these drugs. We investigated resource utilization and utility of patients with AS in Canada. METHODS: A cross-sectional retrospective observational ...

BACKGROUND: Widespread availability of geographic information systems software has facilitated the use of disease mapping in academia, government and private sector. Maps that display the address of affected patients are often exchanged in public forums, and published in peer-reviewed journal articles. As previously reported, a search of figure legends in ...

There is uncertainty regarding which outcomes tools should be used to report the results of treatment for patients with foot and ankle disorders. This study evaluates the validity of the Foot Function Index (FFI) by examining its level of correlation to the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36). The SF-36 ...

BACKGROUND: The Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ) is a disease-specific measure of self-reported symptom severity and functional status. It is frequently used in the reporting of outcomes from trials into interventions for carpal tunnel syndrome. We conducted a systematic review of published studies on the psychometric properties of the BCTQ ...

BACKGROUND: Chronic diseases like osteoarthritis (OA) substantially affect different dimensions of quality of life (QoL). The aim of the study was to reveal possible factors which mainly influence general practitioners (GPs) assessment of patients' QoL. METHODS: 220 primary care patients with OA of the knee or the hip treated by ...

OBJECTIVE: Our objectives were to investigate the therapeutic effects of low protein diet (LPD) for chronic renal failure (CRF) in compliant patients with the diet, and to clarify the relationships to the sociopsychological factors. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty-five patients (47 men and 18 women) with CRF who followed LPD (0.69 ...

Acromegaly is a disease with an important impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Cross-sectional evaluation of HRQoL in patients with acromegaly using generic questionnaires and the specific questionnaire AcroQoL has confirmed severe impairment; active disease, female gender, ageing, disease duration, joint symptoms and prior radiotherapy are associated with worse ...

BACKGROUND: Recent research suggests that agreement between patients' and health professionals' perceptions may influence the outcome of various painful conditions. This issue has received little attention in the context of low back pain and physiotherapy interventions. The current study aimed at exploring the relationship between patient-physiotherapist agreement on baseline low ...

PURPOSE: Elective cosmetic surgery is expanding in the UK in both the public and private sectors. Because resources are constrained, many cosmetic procedures are being excluded within the National Health Service. If guidelines on who can receive such surgery are to be evidence-based, information is needed about the level of ...

OBJECTIVES: Fatigue is a common symptom experienced by patients with various neuromuscular disorders. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of relatives on fatigue experienced by patients with various neuromuscular disorders. METHODS: In total, 106 close relatives of patients with facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD), adult-onset myotonic dystrophy (MD), ...

BACKGROUND: The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a widely used screening tool designed as a case detector for clinically relevant anxiety and depression. Recent studies of the HADS in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients in European countries suggest it comprises three, rather than two, underlying sub-scale dimensions. The ...

There is evidence in the literature that psychosocial aspects affect the symptoms and results of surgery for gastroesophageal reflux. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of psychopathological disorders measured using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) in a sample of patients with gastroesophageal reflux, and to assess ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the reproducibility of the Dutch translation of the Voice Handicap Index (VHI) by performing a test-retest study. To determine the relationship between the test-retest differences and the VHI scores. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A group of 104 patients (56 male, 48 female) with voice complaints completed the VHI ...

BACKGROUND: The study was performed to investigate the association of psychological stress and quality of life (QOL) among patients with the cardiovascular disease (CVD) of hypertension plus stroke or hypertension only. METHODS: The WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was applied to 112 hypertensive patients with hypertension plus stroke and 224 hypertensive patients without ...

BACKGROUND: Approximately 30% of coronary angiograms are negative for significant coronary artery disease and patients are classified as having noncardiac chest pain (NCCP). So far, no systematic diagnostic approach to patients with NCCP investigating for possible esophageal, psychiatric and musculoskeletal abnormalities exists. Furthermore, coping strategies and quality of life are ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate validity and reproducibility of hand-held dynamometry in 11 different muscle groups in children. DESIGN AND PATIENTS: Maximum isometric muscle strength was measured with a calibrated hand-held dynamometer in 61 patients aged 4-11 years who had been referred to our specialist centre in the past 3 years because ...

PURPOSE: To compare the quality-of-life (QoL) and psychosocial changes in a group of patients with early breast cancer who underwent conservative surgery (BCS) or modified radical mastectomy(MRM). METHODS: Self-administered questionnaire assessing body image perception, social habits, sexual attraction and self-consciousness with relatives/friends, was randomly assigned to 125 patients (61 BCS, ...