Quality of Life QoL

The goals of treatment are to maintain patient independence, activities of daily living (ADL), and quality of life (QOL) by alleviating the patient s symptoms, minimizing the development of response fluctuations, and limiting medication-related adverse effects. 

Sometimes you may also see quality-of-life (QOL) data collected for your clinical trial. Quality-of-life data are collected to measure the overall physical and mental well-being of a patient. These data are usually collected with a multiple-question patient questionnaire and may be summed up into an aggregate patient score for analysis. Some commonly used quality-of-life questionnaires are the SF-36 and SF-12 Health Survey, but there are quite a few disease-specific QOL questionnaires available to clinical researchers. 

In addition to the primary objective, a study may have a small number of secondary objectives. A secondary endpoint will be associated with each secondary objective. For example, assessments of quality of life may fall under the category of secondary objectives. (In some studies quality of life may be the primary objective It is simply used here as a realistic example.) Quality of life (QoL) is an extremely important consideration. 

As mentioned earlier, one of the essential elements of outcomes research is the assessment of patient health-related quality of life. However, there is no consensus on the definition of quality of life (QOL) or its overall conceptual framework. In the literature, the term quality of life has been used in a variety of ways. It has been proposed that studies of health outcomes use the term health-related quality of life (HRQOL) to distinguish health effects from the effects of standard of living, family life, friendships, job satisfaction, and other factors on overall quality of life. Only health outcomes are discussed in this chapter, so quality of life and health-related quality of life are used interchangeably, along with health status. 

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the ten leading causes of disability. Patients with OCD experience significant impairment in their quality of life (QOL), with reductions in social, family, and occupational functioning." OCD affects far more individuals than was thought in the past. Because of the nature and potential severity of signs and symptoms and the resultant negative effects on QOL, OCD is considered a major medical condition. Clinicians should be able to identify OCD and nnderstand the current treatment options. 

Education of patients with SBS and their caregivers is essential, particularly in the setting of home PN and/or EN with its associated technology. In addition, quality-of-life (QOL) issues should be addressed with these individuals. Initially those patients on extended... 

Drake et al. [122], using a validated quality-of-life (QOL) measurement instrument, assessed changes in QOL for all three U.S. phase 3 studies mentioned above. In that assessment, tacrolimus ointment therapy with either 0.1% or 0.03% was associated with a statistically significantly greater QOL improvement than placebo treatment in adults, children, and toddlers. As illustrated in Fig. 6, the patients preference for continuing on the study therapy supports the QOL benefits of tacrolimus ointment for atopic dermatitis from the patients perspectives. 

Peripheral neuropathy is the complication with the highest impact on Quality of life (QOL) and the major cause of morbidity in diabetic patients. Diabetic neuropathy is one of the most common neuropathies globally. Diabetic neuropathy develops in parallel with the other long-term diabetic complications. Presence of diabetic neuropathy increases the risk of foot ulcer development and subsequent amputation, and diabetic neuropathy carries an increased mortality. 

A benefit is any known favorable effect for the target population caused by the product. Benefits are clinically meaningful improvements to a patient that result in an improvement in health state or quality of life (QoL). A risk or harm is any known or unknown detrimental effect that can be attributed to the product. 

Cardiovascular complications may occur in proportion to the decrease in renal function. Not only will patients activity of daily living (ADL) and quality of life (QOL) greatly deteriorate if they have such complications, but there will be a major problem in health and healthcare economics. 

Chest physical findings are usually minimal or absent in pulmonary sarcoidosis. Even when radiographic infiltrates are extensive, crackles are present in fewer than 20% of patients with sarcoidosis (6). Clubbing is uncommon in sarcoidosis (6). Fatigue and impaired quality of life (QOL) (25) are far more common among patients with sarcoidosis compared to healthy controls. 

The terms quality of life (QoL), HRQL, and health status (HS) are often used interchangeably despite the fact that they represent different concepts (3). QoL can be defined as the gap between desires and the degree to which these are achieved. HRQL signifies the effect of disease on this gap. Both QoL and HRQL are subjective indicators of how an individual rates his or her life. HS, on the other hand, measures how a disease impacts on the patient s daily life and well-being, relative to the specific population of similar patients. 

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