Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is common in the general population and is diagnosed based on patient-reported symptoms and clinical tests. Although clinical tests are available, significant percentages of patients report symptoms of heartburn and reflux despite negative endoscopies,...

Outcome measures are increasingly used to assess the impact of diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD) from the patient's perspective. These measures, in the form of questionnaires to assess health-related quality of life (HR-QOL), are of 2 main kinds: generic and disease-specific. The former...

There are numerous methods available for assessing patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or other forms of dementia. Quality-of-life (QOL) assessment is unique among these methods. The subjective nature of quality of life provides healthcare professionals with the opportunity of incorporating...

A number of health-related QOL (HR-QOL) measures specifically designed for people with diabetes mellitus have appeared in the literature. This article provides a selective review of 12 measures that address this important construct. For each included study, a description of the measure and its...

Background:Background: Pain is widespread, but has not yet been the focus of measurement in terms of patient preferences. This type of measure is needed for pharmacoeconomic analyses of pain medications. Abstract: Objective:Objective: Our objective was to compare scores from the Box Score...

Background:Background: Preference-based health state utilities are required for many health economic evaluations. When the direct evidence of such is lacking and only condition-specific scores are available, establishing a 'mapping' relationship between instruments can be useful. Abstract:...

Background: The Acne-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (Acne-QoL) is a responsive, reliable and valid instrument developed to measure the impact of facial acne across four dimensions of patient QOL. Score changes on this instrument have been used to report statistically significant...

In an effort to improve patient outcomes and reduce resource use and costs associated with asthma care, asthma disease management programmes have now gained momentum. If a programme is to be effective, the identification of goals and outcomes relevant to the target populations is essential....

Asthma is a chronic condition with characteristics that make it an ideal target for interventions used within disease state management in managed care settings. It affects a substantial population of patients and imposes an increasingly significant global societal burden. Despite the...

Objective: To describe the epidemiological, clinical and economic changes that occurred in the HIV epidemic in Italy prior to and after the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Design: A prospective, observational, multicentre case-control study was conducted comparing...