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PubMed1991

The validity of proxy-generated scores as measures of patient health status.

This study examines the validity of proxy assessments as substitutes for patient assessments of patient physical and psychosocial health status. Data were obtained from 275 patient-proxy pairs who were enrolled in a national study of Adult Day Health Care. Patients and proxies (informal caregivers such as spouses) were asked to complete the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) based on the patients health status. Findings showed that patient-generated and proxy-generated physical scores were highly correlated, although proxies rated patients as slightly more impaired than the patient's rated themselves. The correlation between psychosocial scores was not high enough to consider proxy responses as valid substitutes for patient responses. We explored these differences in response by comparing regression equations predicting patient-generated and proxy-generated physical and psychosocial SIP dimension scores. Variance in the patient-generated psychosocial score was explained by physical function, psychological distress, cognitive status and patient age. Proxy-generated psychosocial scores were primarily explained by the caregiver's psychological distress and perceived burden. These findings point out the importance of considering the source of patient health status estimates when interpreting the results of research studies.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1994

Differences in sociodemographic, health status, and lifestyle characteristics among American Indians by telephone coverage.

BACKGROUND: Telephone interviews are often used to obtain population-based estimates of health-related behaviors but they have serious limitations if phone coverage is poor and people without telephones differ from those with telephones. In this article we examine differences in selected sociodemographic, health status, and lifestyle factors among a sample of American Indian adults with and without telephones. METHODS: In-person interviews were conducted with 410 adult residents of a Rocky Mountain state American Indian reservation. The interview included a question asking about telephone coverage. We compared respondents with and without telephones on demographics, health status, and lifestyle practices. The comparison was repeated for health status and lifestyle practices after adjusting for differences in demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Residents without phones generally were less educated, had lower income and were more likely to be unemployed. The prevalence of unhealthful lifestyle practices/factors was consistently higher for residents without telephones. Many of the differences were reduced by adjusting for demographic characteristics, but significant differences remained for alcohol and marijuana use. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that developing estimates of sociodemographic, health, and lifestyle characteristics on a Native American Indian reservation using a telephone survey method may result in significant noncoverage biases. Adjusting for demographic characteristics eliminated most of these differences. However, significant differences were still apparent with alcohol and marijuana use.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Methods and issues in the projection of population health status.

The discussion of strategies for forecasting health status changes in human populations often becomes immersed in efforts to utilize simple projection strategies that will produce crude projections. The motivation behind this effort is that simple projection strategies have limited data requirements and the crude projection strategies will be, in some ill-defined sense, robust (i.e., insensitive to assumptions). Actually there is a wide range of projection tools available. It seems appropriate to appraise the nature and attributes of each when considering the uses to which the projections will be put. For example, simple models are not necessarily more robust than more sophisticated procedures, especially for longer term temporal projections. Clearly we have many examples in developed countries where the use of simple actuarial or demographic projections has underestimated the true cost of a health programme by factors of 200-300%. The reason why the failures of such simple projection efforts become so rapidly manifest is that the programmes, once implemented, are expanded to meet the population's needs. In projecting only health services or utilization one has nearly a self-fulfilling prophecy--that resource constraints or the actual organization of the programme will directly determine the course of the level and mixture of health services consumption. Therefore failure to base the projections on a detailed model of underlying population needs leads in such cases to grossly inaccurate results. Clearly, projecting a population's health needs requires even more data than projecting health service requirements. Such information constraints require the use of a model to organize data from multiple objective and subjective sources, and to reflect the best scientific understanding of the processes involved. This article briefly discussed the application of 2 such models. One was designed for the analysis of discrete state health changes using population and vital statistics data, the other described both discrete and continuous changes using data from longitudinally followed community populations. One is designed to work only with detailed aggregate data with heavy inputs from scientific experts; the other deals with relatively information-rich measurements. Both can be modified on the basis of expert judgement to deal with simulations of a multiplicity of possible interventions. Both appropriately calculate the relative costs and benefits of select health initiatives.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed1976

The mortality component of health status indexes.

The mortality component of contemporary health indexes is discussed. Since these indexes reduce to mortality indexes when only life and death states enter the analysis, they share the conceptual weaknesses of mortality indexes. Also, they do not incorporate consumption variables explicity and therefore provide no structure for relating health status and living standard. Some attention is devoted to methodological problems of assessing survival probabilities, either from survey or experimental data or from beliefs of experts or individuals who are affected directly. The final section deals with individual preferences for survival lotteries. Conceptual weaknesses of common indexes are discussed, several canonical models for survival preferences are presented, the interdependence of individual utilities is discussed, and methods for eliciting individual survival preferences are considered, along with some illustrative empirical results.

Choice Behavior↗
PubMed2003

The impact of gastrointestinal symptoms on health status in patients with cardiovascular disease.

BACKGROUND: Drugs for the management of cardiovascular disease may provoke gastrointestinal discomfort and complications. AIM: To evaluate whether upper gastrointestinal symptoms affect the health status of patients with cardiovascular disease. METHODS: Two weeks after discharge, 958 consecutive patients, who had been admitted to the Coronary Care Unit of the University Hospital Nijmegen between January and September 2001, were sent a questionnaire for the evaluation of gastrointestinal symptoms and health status. RESULTS: The questionnaire was returned by 632 patients (66%), with 334 patients (53%) reporting gastrointestinal symptoms. The self-rated health status (mean and 95% confidence interval), evaluated by visual analogue scale, was 70 (68-72) for patients without and 61 (59-63) for patients with gastrointestinal symptoms (P = 0.001). Patients with gastrointestinal symptoms reported significantly higher rates of problems with mobility (50% vs. 37%), self-care (19% vs. 10%), usual activities (70% vs. 52%), pain/discomfort (96% vs. 38%) and anxiety/depression (41% vs. 20%) when compared with those without gastrointestinal symptoms. CONCLUSION: Upper gastrointestinal symptoms strongly impaired the health status of patients with cardiovascular disease.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

Otitis media health status evaluation: a pilot study for the investigation of cost-effective outcomes of recurrent acute otitis media treatment.

There are no reliable and valid instruments that measure otitis media clinical or functional health status in children ages 1 to 3 years. This study develops and tests three new instruments of clinical and functional otitis health status: the Otitis Media Clinical Severity Index (OM-CSI), the Otitis Media Functional Status Questionnaire (OM-FSQ), and the Otitis Media Diary (OMD). The OM-CSI was found to be a reliable measure of clinical acute otitis media (AOM) severity, with high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) scores, as well as an accurate indicator of AOM severity. The OM-FSQ and OMD were demonstrated to be reliable and valid measures of otitis-specific functional health status, with reproducible scores over time, high internal consistency alpha scores, and high correlation with measures of AOM clinical severity and other functional health status instruments. These three new instruments were also sensitive and specific indicators of AOM episodes.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1998

[Sports activities and declared health status].

A cross-section study on sports and health was carried out among 8666 subjects from 15 to 49 years old, for a large range of practices. The analysis compared three groups, 2048 non-athletics, 5381 "moderately" athletic, and 1237 "highly" athletic. Compared to non-athletics, the "moderately" athletic group has a higher opinion of their state of health, with a similar frequency of declared health problems (hospitalisations, absences from work, traumatisms). The intensive practices are accompanied by an opinion of health status similar to the moderately athletic group, with a larger frequency of declared health problems. These results suggest a poor control of sports risks among those who practice the most.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed2001

[Health risk behaviors, health status self-assessment and stress perception among industrial workers].

OBJECTIVE: To identify the prevalence and association among health risk behaviors, stress perception, and health status self-assessment among industrial workers. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed using a questionnaire previously tested in a pilot study in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Data on smoking, alcohol consumption, fruit and vegetables intake, physical activity, stress perception, and self-assessment of health status were available for 4,225 workers (67.5% males and 32.5% females). Subjects were selected using a 3-stage cluster sampling (5% error margin). Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square, and logistic regression analysis (p<0.05). RESULTS: The mean age was 29.7 years old (SD=8.6). The prevalence of smokers was 20.6%, higher among males (23.1%) than females (15.6%). The proportion of heavy drinkers was high (57.2% among males and 18.8% among females). Almost half of the subjects (46.2%) reported no leisure-time physical activity (67% females and 34.8% males). Approximately 14% of subjects reported high levels of stress and difficulty to cope with daily tasks. About 15% of the workers perceived their health status as regular or poor. Gender, age, marital status, number of children, educational level and economic status were significantly associated with the prevalence of health risk behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the limitations of cross-sectional studies, based on self-report assessments, the study results suggest a high prevalence of alcohol consumption and physical inactivity during leisure time. The observed association between gender and health risk behavior suggests that both sexes engage in risk behaviors: for men these behaviors are direct or active (smoking, alcohol consumption) and for women, they are more indirect or passive (physical inactivity, stress).

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Ten year outcome in a cohort of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis: health status, disease process, and damage.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate outcome as measured by health status, disease process, and damage in an unselected group of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) monitored prospectively for 10 years and to search for prognostic factors. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 183 patients with RA with disease duration <2 years were assessed annually at a team care unit. Health status was measured by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) and functional class. Disease process was assessed by clinical and laboratory measures of disease activity and evaluation of disease course. Damage was quantified as occurrence of major extra-articular manifestations and need for large joint replacements. Possible predictive factors were evaluated by logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: 168/183 patients completed the entire follow up period. Of all 183 patients, 137 (75%) had been treated with disease modifying antirheumatic drugs and 84 (46%) with low dose oral glucocorticoids. After 10 years 158 patients (94%) managed daily life activities independently (functional class I-II). As measured by the HAQ 20% had almost no disability, 28% were mildly disabled, and 10% were seriously disabled. Median HAQ score had increased from 0.8 to 1.1 (p<0.001). Disease activity was significantly reduced. 133 patients (79%) had a relapsing remitting disease course and 30 patients (18%) were in remission as defined by the American College of Rheumatology criteria. Thirty patients (17%) had undergone large joint replacements. Fifteen patients (8%) had developed major extra-articular complications. The HAQ score during the first three months predicted disability at 10 years with an odds ratio of 13.4. CONCLUSIONS: Prospective studies such as this give important knowledge of the variable long term prognosis of RA and provide necessary background information for clinical trials of new treatment modalities.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Health status: types of validity and the index of well-being.

The concept of validity as it applies to measures of health and health status is examined in the context of a set of standard, widely accepted definitions of validity. Criterion validity is shown to be irrelevant to health status measures because of the lack of a single specific, directly observable measure of health for use as a criterion. To overcome this problem, the Index of Well-being has been constructed to fulfill the definition of content validity by including all levels of function and symptom/problem complexes, a clearly defined relation to the death state, and consumer ratings of the relative desirability of the function levels. Data from a two-wave household interview survey provide convergent evidence of construct validity by demonstrating an expected positive correlation of the Index of Well-being with self-rated well-being and expected negative correlations with age, number of chronic medical conditions, number of reported symptoms or problems, number of physician contacts, and dysfunctional status. Discriminant evidence of construct validity is demonstrated by predicted differences in correlation between concurrent Index of Well-being scores and self-assessed overall health status, and between the Index of Well-being scores and self-rated well-being on different days. A simple method of estimating a currently usable comprehensive population index of health status, the Weighted Life Expectancy, is described.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1998

[Study of the health status of subjects born with medical-assisted reproduction: the connexion between epidemiology and bioethics].

The knowledge of the newborns' health status from medical assisted procreation techniques represents the main objective of public health in this field. It is not acceptable, in fact, the use of fertilisation and artificial insemination techniques without a correct evaluation of these newborns' health status. As probable risks exist in medical protocols of treatments (mothers' exposition to hormonal drugs, manipulations of gametes, embryo development in growing coculture with different animal cells, cryopreservation, lack of natural selection of spermatozoa in intracytoplasmatic sperm injection techniques), a check of the results of these techniques is extremely necessary. Newborns' health status must be detected not only at delivery time but also in the following period to evaluate the right physical and psychological development. To estimate infertility risk that these children might run after their mothers' hormonal treatment, it is necessary to follow these subjects till adult age.

Bioethics↗
PubMed1991

Worksite health promotion. The benefits of providing personal health status feedback and education programs to employees.

Discovering ways to initiate and maintain health related behavior changes is a growing concern to business and industry. This research supports previous data indicating that wellness programs offered at the worksite are significantly beneficial in assisting employees to change behavior. This research did not find significant benefits to the employees who obtained health status information prior to participating in a worksite health program; however, the health assessment tool was informative and may have been adequate to assist in behavior changing activities. Wellness programs are important factors for promoting health related behaviors; failure of this study to support the importance of assessment feedback does not negate the desirability of assessment as an important component of the corporate wellness program.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

The effect of previous low back surgery on general health status: results from the National Spine Network initial visit survey of patients with low back pain.

STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study on 18,325 patients with back pain enrolled at first visit in the National Spine Network (NSN) database from January 1998 to April 2000. OBJECTIVES: To examine whether patients who had previous low back surgeries had poorer general health status than patients with no surgery. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Several studies have described the role of psychological abnormalities in patients with chronic low back pain. Some of these patients have had previous spinal surgeries performed. No study has examined the effects of previous low back surgery on the general health status. METHODS: The Short Form Health Survey 36 was administered to the initial visit NSN patients. Of the 18,325 patients enrolled, 3,632 had previous low back surgeries. RESULTS: Patients who had previous lumbar surgeries fared significantly poorly in all 10 scores of the SF-36 health survey, even after adjustment for confounding factors. Among these patients, decompression achieved significantly higher scores for General Health, Role-Physical, and Mental Component Summary scales. Patients who had decompression as their most recent surgery had higher scores for General Health, Role-Physical, Role-Emotional, and Mental Component Summary scales, when compared to those who had other surgeries. Patients who had instrumentation as their most recent surgery had higher scores for Bodily Pain and Physical Component Summary scores. There is a positive correlation between time since last surgery and the SF-36 outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Previous back surgery is associated with significantly worse general health status than those without surgery. Among patients who had previous surgeries, decompression seems to exert better effects on SF-36 health status. There is a positive correlation between time since last surgery and the SF-36 outcomes, although the SF-36 scores are significantly lower than those without previous surgery.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Life-style modification for weight control to improve diabetes health status.

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship among variables which are associated with life-style modification, knowledge of diabetes, social support, health practices, and body mass index, to examine their effect on health status, and to test the effectiveness of a community based life-style modification program for weight control. Adults (n = 66) with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus participated in either a treatment or control group. The treatment consisted of 5 weekly 90-min sessions on modifying eating and exercise patterns. All participants completed a personal resource questionnaire (PRQ), health practices survey (HPS), and diabetes health status questionnaire (DHS) at intake, 5 weeks, and 4 months. Knowledge of diabetes was assessed only at intake. Knowledge of diabetes, social support, and health practices explained 27% of the variance in health status, but health practices explained the largest (18%) proportion of the variance and was the only study variable significantly affected by the life-style modification program.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Psychological profiles and health status in Japanese female patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: the Miyagi Lupus Collaborative Study.

Psychological factors have been suspected to be associated with the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and patient's health status. However, psychological profiles among Japanese patients with SLE have been poorly understood. We started a prospective study of female patients with SLE in 1995. Using the baseline data from 279 patients in this prospective study, we cross-sectionally analyzed the relations of clinical factors and social factors to psychological factors, and the association between psychological factors and mental and physical health status. We used the Japanese notion ikigai as an indicator of mental health, and ambulatory activity as an indicator of their physical health, respectively. To measure psychological factors, the short-form of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (short EPQ-R) and the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (HLOC) scale were used. Active phase of the disease was significantly related to the neuroticism score in the short EPQ-R. Educational level was inversely related to the scores of powerful others and chance HLOC belief. As for health status, the internal HLOC belief was significantly associated with ikigai, and the chance HLOC belief was inversely associated with ambulatory activity. The scores on the short EPQ-R (Extraversion/Introversion and Neuroticism) were exclusively related to ikigai. This study suggests that psychological factors may have effects on both the development of SLE and patient's health status.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1991

[Correlations among body weight, life style and health status in Korean adults].

Correlations among body weight and sociodemographic factors, including life-style were tested as social determinants of health in a sample of 5,201 adults in Korea. The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which sociodemographic variables and life-style associated health behaviors explain body weight distribution. A second aim was to explain the relation of body weight and health status to stress the importance of body weight as an early risk indicator of health status. The canonical correlation between the weight distribution (underweight and overweight) and the independent variables was 0.29, 17% of the total variance was explained. Perceived health level represented the highest contribution (canonical coefficient 0.82) to body weight. Sociodemographic factors such as sex, economic status, and life-style factors such as smoking, exercise, regular meals and sleep showed comparatively high contributions to body weight. The relevance of body weight for health status including the rate of chronic disease and the rate of medical utilization was significant. Especially, underweight was clarified as being more important than overweight to morbidity level and medical utilization. These findings suggest that perceived body weight is an important indicator of health status and is thus a valuable variable to be considered for nursing intervention and health education related to the promotion of health.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Race: a major health status and outcome variable 1980-1999.

Based on the latest available data, African Americans are faced with persistent, or worsening, wide and deep, race-based health disparities compared to the white or general population as we enter the new millennium. These disparities are a 382-year continuum. There have been two periods of health reform specifically addressing the correction of race-based health disparities. The first period (1865-1872) was linked to Freedmen's Bureau legislation and the second (1965-1975) was a part of the Black Civil Rights Movement. Both had dramatic and positive effects on black health status and outcome, but were discontinued too soon to correct the "slave health deficit." Although African-American health status and outcome is slowly improving, black health has generally stagnated or deteriorated compared to whites since 1980. There is a compelling need for a third period of health reform accompanied by a cultural competence movement to address and correct persistent, often worsening, race-based health disparities.

Black or African American↗
PubMed2002

Subjective health status in Norwegian patients with Addison's disease.

OBJECTIVE: Many patients with Addison's disease have complaints that might be related to the disease or to its treatment. However, only a few studies have addressed the subjective health status of patients with adrenocortical failure. The aim of the present study was to assess the subjective health status with special emphasis on fatigue among patients with Addison's disease. SUBJECTS, DESIGN AND MEASUREMENT: In a postal survey, 79 patients with confirmed primary adrenal failure (Addison's disease) completed the Short Form 36 (SF-36) and the Fatigue questionnaires. The subjective health status in Addison's disease was compared with normative data from the general population. RESULTS: General health and vitality perception were most consistently impaired in the patients with Addison's disease. The scores on physical functioning and role-physical were low in women. Social functioning and role-emotional scores were also lower than normal in the female patients, but this was confined to the patients with autoimmune polyendocrine syndromes. Patients with autoimmune polyendocrine syndromes tended to have lower scores than patients with solitary Addison's disease. The level of fatigue was higher than normal for both men and women. Working disability at ages 18-67 years was 26%, compared with 10% in the corresponding general Norwegian population. The high working disability increased with age and was higher in subgroups with concomitant endocrine diseases. Most subjective health parameters were lower among the disabled compared to the patients in work. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with Addison's disease under replacement therapy with cortisone acetate and fludrocortisone have reduced general health perception and vitality, and increased fatigue. Female patients reported reduced physical function, which might be due to adrenal androgen depletion. Mental health seems more influenced by concomitant endocrine diseases, but mental fatigue might be a specific feature in adrenal failure. The patient population is heterogeneous, with normal findings in a substantial proportion but markedly reduced subjective health status and working ability in many others. Thus, there might be potential for further refinement of replacement therapy.

Addison Disease↗