Discussing the patients’ subjective view of their health status has always been an important part in modern clinical care, as a variety of symptoms and issues are only accessible for clinicians through patients’ self-reports. Only the respective person him- or herself can tell if and in which intensity certain symptoms occur (e.g. pain, depression, fatigue), if he or she feels impaired in his or her social life or if e.g. sleeping disturbances have been a problem.
Such information can be summarised under the umbrella term Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) and includes all statements made by patients about their own health status and the possible effects of treatment they receive. More importantly, PROs are assessed without any interpretation, evaluation or modification by third parties. Those self-reports of patients can encompass a variety of aspects like, amongst others, functioning (e.g. physically, socially, emotionally), symptoms (e.g. anxiety, nausea, vomiting, hair loss), satisfaction with care, perceived value of care or adherence to treatment regimen.
QOL is a multidimensional construct that includes aspects of a patient’s perspective of his/ her health status and can be best captured by the PRO methodology. Most QOL questionnaires capture physical, psychological (anxiety, depression) and social aspects, query symptoms (e.g. pain, sleep disorders, impairment due to weight gain/loss) and ideally also topics that are of particular relevance to the respective patient group (e.g. for pancreatic cancer patients: altered peristalsis and taste changes after pancreatic surgery, abdominal pain, anorexia or weight loss).
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