Rehabilitation and quality of life measurement issues

✍ Scribed by Padilla, Geraldine V. ;Grant, Marcia M. ;Martin, Lucy

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1988
• Weight: 503 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0148-6403
• DOI: 10.1002/hed.2890100818

✦ Synopsis

This article addresses issues that have bearing on the measurement of quality of life as an outcome of speech rehabilitation. The construct should be measured with a questionnaire(s) that captures the patient's perspective; is valid, reliable, and sensitive to changes in the discrepancy or "gap" between present experience and rehabilitation expectations; is compatible with adaptive rehabilitation strategies and goals; measures the dimensions of psychological well-being, physical well-being, body image concerns, social concerns, financial concerns, and communication; realistically focuses on those dimensions of quality of life that clinicians can expect to impact; and is repeated at critical but realistic intervals bearing in mind subject attrition.

HEAD & NECK SURGERY lO:S156-S160,1988

Considering the nature of current treatment for head and neck cancer and the accompanying physical, biological, functional, and psychosocial changes that are likely to occur, the quality of