Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life in Asthma

Many clinicians now recognize the importance of incorporating an assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQL) into their clinical studies and practices. Conventional clinical measures provide valuable information about the status of the affected organ system but rarely capture the functional...

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Main Author: Elizabeth F Juniper
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 1997-01-01
Series:Canadian Respiratory Journal
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/1997/927162
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author Elizabeth F Juniper
author_facet Elizabeth F Juniper
author_sort Elizabeth F Juniper
collection DOAJ
description Many clinicians now recognize the importance of incorporating an assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQL) into their clinical studies and practices. Conventional clinical measures provide valuable information about the status of the affected organ system but rarely capture the functional impairments (physical, emotional and social) that are important to patients in their everyday lives. To obtain a complete picture of a patient’s health status, both the conventional clinical indices and the patient's HRQL must be measured. Both adults and children with asthma are distressed by symptoms, such as shortness of breath, cough and chest tightness, and they are limited in their day-to-day activities, such as sports, employment or school work and participation in activities with friends. In addition, both adults and children with asthma are concerned about having asthma, fearful of not having their medications when they need them and frightened of having an asthma attack. They become very frustrated, and children in particular often feel different and isolated from their friends. Disease-specific HRQL questionnaires have been developed and validated for both adults and children with asthma. This paper provides a review of these questionnaires and identifies their strengths and weaknesses. The questionnaires chosen for review have good measurement properties and validity and can be used in both clinical trials and clinical practice to assess the impact of asthma on a patient’s life. Because one of the aims of treatment is to ensure that patients benefit from treatment, an essential component of clinical assessment should be evaluation of HRQL.
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spelling doaj-art-e7583c19ca364cebbe4a359f1c829b032025-02-03T06:00:14ZengWileyCanadian Respiratory Journal1198-22411997-01-014314515110.1155/1997/927162Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life in AsthmaElizabeth F Juniper0Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, CanadaMany clinicians now recognize the importance of incorporating an assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQL) into their clinical studies and practices. Conventional clinical measures provide valuable information about the status of the affected organ system but rarely capture the functional impairments (physical, emotional and social) that are important to patients in their everyday lives. To obtain a complete picture of a patient’s health status, both the conventional clinical indices and the patient's HRQL must be measured. Both adults and children with asthma are distressed by symptoms, such as shortness of breath, cough and chest tightness, and they are limited in their day-to-day activities, such as sports, employment or school work and participation in activities with friends. In addition, both adults and children with asthma are concerned about having asthma, fearful of not having their medications when they need them and frightened of having an asthma attack. They become very frustrated, and children in particular often feel different and isolated from their friends. Disease-specific HRQL questionnaires have been developed and validated for both adults and children with asthma. This paper provides a review of these questionnaires and identifies their strengths and weaknesses. The questionnaires chosen for review have good measurement properties and validity and can be used in both clinical trials and clinical practice to assess the impact of asthma on a patient’s life. Because one of the aims of treatment is to ensure that patients benefit from treatment, an essential component of clinical assessment should be evaluation of HRQL.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/1997/927162
spellingShingle Elizabeth F Juniper
Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life in Asthma
Canadian Respiratory Journal
title Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life in Asthma
title_full Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life in Asthma
title_fullStr Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life in Asthma
title_full_unstemmed Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life in Asthma
title_short Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life in Asthma
title_sort assessing health related quality of life in asthma
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/1997/927162
work_keys_str_mv AT elizabethfjuniper assessinghealthrelatedqualityoflifeinasthma