Assessment of quality of life

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Although no widely accepted definition of the term ‘quality of life’ exists, the close relationship between quality of life and health is accepted. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the assessment of quality of life in both medical care and clinical trials. Measures which have often been used in evaluating quality of life are for example the two self-rating questionnaires, the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and the Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWB).

The NHP is today a well-accepted measure of perceived health status and distress. Studies testing the validity of the NHP have been performed and demonstrate that it measures physical, social and psychological distress associated with medical, social and emotional problems. A patient's answers to questions provide a standardized, quantitative measure of the patient's self-assessed, perceived healthrelated quality of life. The NHP is in two parts. Part I consists of 38 yes/no items which combine into six dimensions: emotions, pain, mobility, sleep, energy and social isolation. A higher score indicates greater distress and the presence of more problems within each dimension. In NHP part II there are seven yes/no statements pertaining to the frequency of health-related problems with paid employment, house work, social life, family life, sex life and holidays.

The PGWB is a self-administered measure of psychological well-being. It provides information concerning intrapersonal affective states which reflect subjective well-being or distress. Evaluation of the test has demonstrated good test-retest reliability and good internal consistency.