Lecture 6 - HRQol Flashcards
what does the term “Quality of life” (QoL) mean?
broad concept that measures people’s overall perception of their life - both positive and negative
-included health related and non health related aspects of life
What is HEALTH-related quality of life? (HRQoL)
part of a person’s overall quality of life that represents the functional effect of an illness and its therapy upon a patient as perceived by the patient
encompasses aspects of overall QoL that can clearly be showed to affect health - whether physical or mental
what is the WHO’s definition of health?
health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
Who can be potential respondents to the survey for health status measures?
patient, patient’s relatives, caregivers, ETC
JUST MUST ALWAYS BE ANSWERED FROM THE PATIENT’S PERSPECTIVE
Do most health status surveys result in 1 overall score?
NO
there are usually scores for different aspects/domains of the patient’s health (mental, physical, etc)
What are the 2 main groups of instruments used to measure health status?
- General measures
- Disease-specific HRQoL measures
what are advantages and disadvantages of using a generic measure?
advantage - score can be compared for many disease states and divisions. EVERYONE should be able to answer all the questions whether they have the illness or not
disadvantage - not sensitive to clinically relevant differences for every disease or condition. Doesnt ask “why” you answered yes to a certain difficulty
what is one of the best questionaires in measuring health status?
SF-36
what are 2 disadvantages of using SF36
scores are likely to change from time to time
self reported data — we can manipulate if we dont want HC providers to know something
what is the advantage to using disease-specific HRQoL measure?
used to collect more narrowly focused patient views on the impact of a certain disease
what are the 4 domains of health status?
physical
psychological (mental)
social
general health perception
What does the domain of “general health perception” mean?
represents the patient’s overall beliefs and evaluations about ehir own health
what 3 psychometric properties of HRQoL instruments are important to assess?
- Consistency (reliability)
- Accuracy (validity)
- Responsiveness (ability to measure meaningful clinical changes)
can an instrument be reliable but not valid?
YES
Validity determines….
if the instrument is actually measuring what is is supposed to be valid
