Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a highly cost-effective treatment for symptoms of the menopause such as hot flushes (flashes). A number of economic evaluations have indicated that it may also be a cost-effective therapy for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. However,...

Objective: To analyse how type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) and the symptoms of its chronic long-term complications correlate with health status domains in the adult population in Finland. Methods: A representative sample of patients with type 1 DM was selected randomly from the Finnish drug...

Sleep dysfunction can manifest in several ways, ranging from insomnia to somnolence, and from disrupted sleep to lack of restful sleep. Measuring sleep dysfunction is an area of active research and there exist a number of patient-reported outcome instruments that measure various aspects of sleep...

Introduction: The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) is a validated, sensitive and reliable patient questionnaire that evaluates and quantifies quality of life (QOL) across several domains, including lung cancer-related symptoms. The FACT-L was not designed for use in economic...

An important consideration when establishing priorities in healthcare is the likely effect that alternative allocations will have on the health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) of the relevant population. This paper considers some of the important issues and controversies surrounding the...

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine utility scores for various chronic conditions. Design and setting: This study is a descriptive analysis. Health Utilities Index (HUI) scores for 20 chronic conditions were examined from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) from 1994...

Medically intractable epilepsy (MIE) is a chronic disabling condition that primarily affects the young. Inadequately treated, it can produce life-long disability associated with high rates of social isolation, unemployment, depression, suicide and premature mortality. Recent advances in...

Rheumatoid arthritis is a progressive, disabling disease which can lead to long-term deformity and disability. Leflunomide is a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) approved to reduce signs and symptoms, inhibit structural damage and improve physical function in adults with active...

Alzheimer's disease is a common disorder in the elderly, and a cure is not currently available. This article summarises the intervention studies that have been done in Alzheimer's disease research and discusses assessment tools and outcome measures used in these studies. Current approaches are...