Generic versus disease-specific instruments in quality-of-life assessment of XXXX .

@entity1 @entity11028 @entity1576 @entity1030
OBJECTIVES: Chronic @entity1576 may alter a @entity1 's social life and well-being. Measures of health-related quality of life have been proven to bring complementary information to functional assessments. The aim of the study was to describe the questionnaires that are most frequently used to measure this subjective construct in @entity1 with @entity1030 ( @entity1030 ) and to compare the responses obtained via administering one generic (SF-36) and one disease-specific questionnaire (St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire; SGRQ) to @entity1 with @entity1030 . METHODS: One group of @entity1 (46 individuals) was used to evaluate the questionnaire's performance in repeated administrations under unchanged conditions (reproducibility) and to study the correlations of corresponding domains of respective questionnaires. Responsiveness of both questionnaires was tested on another group of 129 @entity1 measured before and after the therapeutic stay at the @entity11028 . Methods of correlational analysis (Spearman, intraclass, and canonical correlation coefficients) as well as the Wilcoxon rank test were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Both questionnaires seem to be comprehensive outcome measures for @entity1 with @entity1030 , but some particular areas may not be covered with the same intensity (e.g. emotional problems). Reproducibility of both questionnaires was good and only small non-significant shifts were seen, particularly in physical and social functioning domains. In repeated measurement, the SGRQ seemed to be slightly more responsive to change than the SF-36. CONCLUSIONS: The idea of using generic and disease-specific questionnaires together probably represents the best approach to this topic. It may improve our knowledge and explain better the relationship between disease-specific changes in @entity1 status and both disease-specific treatment and general functional status.
