A NEW SHORT-FORM INDIVIDUAL QUALITY-OF-LIFE MEASURE (SEIQOL-DW) - APPLICATION IN A COHORT OF INDIVIDUALS WITH HIV AIDS

Quality of life is an increasingly important outcome measure in medici ne and health care. Many measures of quality of life present patients with predetermined lists of questions that may or may not be relevant to the individual patient. This paper describes a brief measure, the S EIQoL-DW, which is derived from the schedule for evaluation of individ ual quality of life (SEIQoL). The measure allows respondents to nomina te the areas of life which are most important, rate their level of fun ctioning or satisfaction with each, and indicate the relative importan ce of each to their overall quality of life. Given its practicality an d brevity, the measure should prove particularly useful in clinical si tuations where patient generated data on quality of life is important. This article describes the first clinical application of the measure, assessing the quality of life of a cohort of patients with HIV/AIDS m anaged in general practice.