Showing papers on "Quality of life published in 1984"

Measuring the quality of life of cancer patients: the Functional Living Index-Cancer: development and validation.

Abstract: The classical criteria for the evaluation of clinical trials in cancer reflect alterations in physical well-being, but are insensitive to other important factors, such as psychosocial state, sociability, and somatic sensation that may play a critical role in determining the patients' functional response to their illness and its treatment. The Functional Living Index-Cancer is designed for easy, repeated patient self-administration. It is a 22-item questionnaire that has been validated on 837 patients in two cities over a three-year period. Criteria for validity include stability of factor analysis, concurrent validation studies against the Karnofsky, Beck Depression, Spielberger State and Trait Anxiety, and Katz Activities of Daily Living scales, as well as the scaled version of The General Health Questionnaire and The McGill/ Melzack Pain Index. The index is uncontaminated by social desirability issues. The validation studies demonstrate the lack of correlation between traditional measures of patient response and other significant functional factors such as depression and anxiety (r = 0.33), sociability and family interaction, and nausea. These findings elucidate the frequently observed discrepancies between traditional assessments of clinical response and overall functional patient outcome. The index is proposed as an adjunct to clinical trials assessment and may provide additional patient functional information on which to analyse the outcome of clinical trials or offer specific advice to individual patients.

Disablement and quality of life after stroke.

Abstract: This study concerns the quality of life of patients after stroke and how this is influenced by disablement and emotional factors. Ninety-six consecutive patients of mean age 71 years were followed for two years. At the end of that time 23% had experienced a recurrence of stroke and 27% were deceased. Of the survivors 76% were independent as regards activities of daily life (ADL) and lived in their own homes. Age as well as initial function were prognostically important factors. Patients who could participate in interviews marked on a visual analogue scale their evaluation of quality of life before and after stroke. Most of them had experienced a decrease and no improvement was observed during the two years. The deterioration was more pronounced in ADL dependent patients than among the independent. However, depression and anxiety were found to be of similar importance for quality of life as was physical disablement. These findings call for a greater emphasis on psychological support in the care of post stroke patients. The visual analogue scale can be a useful tool for detecting special needs.

Quality of life and its predictors in patients with mild hypoxemia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract: • Measures of quality of life were obtained on 985 patients with mild hypoxemia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A subsample of 100 patients were also given extensive neuropsychological and personality tests. Mildly hypoxemic COPD patients showed impairment in quality-of-life activities. They showed less impairment in physical function, compared with previous studies on COPD patients with hypoxemia, but about equal impairment in psychosocial function and dysphoric mood. Nonrelated health changes in life do not seem to account for these findings. Degree of self-reported tension-anxiety was the single greatest predictor of both physical and psychosocial measures of quality of life. Level of exercise completed, forced expiratory volume in 1 s, and neuropsychological status were significantly related to physical limitations, but not psychosocial functioning. The Pao2 was not significantly related to quality-of-life measures in this patient group. (Arch Intern Med1984;144:1613-1619)

Quality of life in treated head and neck cancer patients: a preliminary report.

Abstract: A psychological study of 48 elderly men after treatment for buccopharyngeal cancers was carried out to see whether treatment type (surgery alone, irradiation alone or salvage surgery after failed radiotherapy) was associated with differences in quality of life. Eight measures were used, covering functional disability, appearance, pain, depression, psychological well being and life satisfaction. Functional disability was lower and performance status high in those treated by irradiation alone. There was greater dissatisfaction with appearance in patients treated by surgery. Levels of depression were high in all groups. There were no significant differences between treatment groups however for depression, present pain, psychological well being or life satisfaction.

Quality of Life in End-Stage Renal Disease:

Abstract: Survival in end-stage renal disease seems to depend more on age and associated diseases than on the form of treatment. Previously published comments on the quality of life experienced by patients t...

The perceived quality of life in Norway: Regional variations and contextual effects

Abstract: This article deals with perceived quality of life and its relationship to sociodemographic background variables in Norway. We try to answer two questions, viz (1) to what extent does the absolute level of quality of life as well as the relationships between quality of life and individual-level sociodemographic variables vary between Norwegian counties? and (2) are such variations related to specific characteristics of the various counties? Some between-county variation is found, but in most cases the pattern of variation is not replicated across surveys. For variation in the absolute level of QOL as well as in the relationship between an individual's education and QOL, however, there is a moderate degree of stability. Contextual analyses show that the relationship between education and QOL is positive and moderately strong in affluent counties, near zero or negative in economically more backward areas. The results are interpreted within the framework of a person-environment fit model.

Early appraisal of coronary revascularization on quality of life.

Abstract: Information available for nurses on counseling cardiac patients about the outcomes of bypass surgery has focused on the time following the first postoperative year. In order to assess earlier impact, two groups of bypass patients--alike in terms of preoperative physical activity, angina level, and type of revascularization--were compared in terms of quality of life and related areas. Seventeen patients were 3 to 5 months (88-141 days) postoperative and 17 patients were 6 to 8 months (161-222 days) post-operative. They were asked to rate themselves on Cantril's Self-Anchoring Scale in relation to past, present, and future life satisfaction. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that both groups of patients viewed their future life satisfaction to be better than their life satisfaction prior to open heart surgery. Furthermore, the patients 6 to 8 months postoperative viewed their present life satisfaction to be significantly better than their past (p less than .05). Both groups reported a decrease in the level of angina and an increase in the level of physical activity after surgery (p less than .001). They also reported greater satisfaction with family life (p less than .05), social life (p less than .001), and sexual life (p less than .01) following surgery. Overall, there were significant improvements in the quality of life early in the recovery period following surgery. Residual incisional pain may have contributed to any differences between groups.

The Structure of Self-Perceived Quality of Life of Men and Women Graduate Students.

Abstract: This study continues the exploration of self-perceived quality of life (QOL) begun by Carter (1984) and Norris and Carter (1984). It adopts the multidimensional concept of QOL in young adults used by these authors and by Cutler (1979), Herzog and Rodgers (1981), and Carp and Carp (1983). It attempts to identify similarities and differences in the factor structures of men and women which Liang and Bollan (1983) suggest may be important. Similarities may allow development of common quality of life measures for men and women and have importance in both developmental and social theory. Differences could invalidate both sex and age comparisons in adult development by casting doubt on the use of a common metric and samples which vary in gender ratios at different