Quality of Life Assessment

This book reviews current methodology for assessing the health status of patients -- their `quality of life' -- and shows how this methodology can be applied to specific diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, angina and Parkinson's disease.

Zusammenfassung
Reviews current methodology for assessing the health status of patients - their "quality of life" - and shows how this methodology can be applied to specific diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, angina and Parkinson's disease.

Inhalt

Part 1 Philosophies, concepts and key instruments involved in assessing quality of life: the new era of quality of life assessment; assessing health-related quality of life for clinical decision making; the quality of well-being scale - rationale for a single quality of life index; development, testing and use of the sickness impact profile; the Nottingham health profile; the McMaster health index auestionaire - an update; a health index and output measure; the index of health-related QOL (IHQL) - a new tool for audit and cost-per-QALY analysis; 15D measure of health-related quality of life and its applications; the Euroqol quality of life project; a WHO method for the assessment of health-related quality of life (WHOQOL); indices versus profiles - advantages and disadvantages; the on-line guide to quality of life assessment (OGLA) - a resource for selectiong quality of life assessments. Part 2 Assessing quality of life in major disease areas: measuring the quality of life - patients with caner, patients with rheumatoid arthritis, patients with Parkinson's diseasse, patients with respiratory disease, patients with hypertension, patients with angina; measuring the quality of life in psychiatry; measuring the quality of life in dermatology. Part 3 Viewpoints and perspectives: ethical questions and policy decisions - their implications for quality of life studies; industry perspectives on quality of life; a regulatory view; the cost effectiveness of pharmaceuticals; requirements for health care purchasers; the importance of quality of life in policy decisions.