ESTIMATING THE VALUE OF A GENERIC QUALITY-OF-LIFE MEASURE

In this paper, data from a clinical trial of a new antiviral agent for treating patients with tester are used to answer the following questi on: Does the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) add to the information ob tained from the clinical measures? Three ways in which the NHP could a dd information are measured. First, Cox's regression analysis is used to determine whether health-related quality-of-life scores obtained at diagnosis give information about disease prognosis. Second, changes i n mean NHP scores in different dimensions are computed after pain reso lution to determine whether NHP scores provide more sensitive indicato rs of disease resolution. Third, linear regression is used to determin e whether the impacts of disease on quality of life are measured adequ ately by the clinical parameters. These analyses show that use of the physical mobility and energy dimensions of the NHP increases understan ding of disease prognosis; demonstrates the continuing impact of teste r on patients' sleep patterns and energy levels, disease symptoms not included as clinical measures, that persist after the cessation of zos ter-associated pain; and gives a measure of the impact of tester on th e patient, which includes unmeasured and measured levels of severity.