Quality of life assessment in medicine : Concepts, definitions, purposes, and basic tools
Marianne Sullivan
Bok Engelsk
| Omfang | 5 s.
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| Utgave | Kopi
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| Opplysninger | The technology of contemporary research into the quality of life has been developing rapidly for more than ten years. there is now clear consensus on the major purposes and basic tools of clinical resaerch, and the centrality of the patients' pouint in care outcomes is recognized. Especially in incurable conditions, when the self-evident and realistic goal of care is to provide a life that is as comfortable, functional, and satisfying as possible, the outcome management primarely concerns quality of life. This broad concept can be made concrete by measurements of health-related components including ADL, role functioning, physical an dmental symptoms, well-being, and social interaction. Some can be adequately assessed by means of established generic measures, whereas others may require additional specific measurements,such as sexuality and disease-spåecific symptoms and side-effects of treatment. Patients are often logically enough the only experts on the various impacts of their diseases or injuries, and so the ultimate judge of what treatment is all the more important as their ratings do not correlate highly with those of physicians or health care personnel. The role of proxy rators needs further analysis. The extension of the basic technologies developed within somatic medicine offers exciting potentials for outcome evaluation in psychiatry.
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