Rp. Cole et al., MEASURING OUTCOME IN LOW-PRIORITY PLASTIC-SURGERY PATIENTS USING QUALITY-OF-LIFE INDEXES, British Journal of Plastic Surgery, 47(2), 1994, pp. 117-121
292 patients with a variety of ''low-priority'' conditions completed t
he Health Measurement Questionnaire self-report instrument (HMQ) on ad
mission for surgery, and again 6 months post-operation. Comparison of
the two questionnaires permitted the change in Quality of Life (QoL) t
o be measured. Overall, of the respondents, 73% gained benefit from su
rgery in terms of improvement in QoL. The largest gains were in the br
east surgery group, but there were individual patients in all groups w
ho gained substantial improvement in QoL. The results suggest that the
HMQ is a useful method of measuring benefit in patients admitted for
low priority plastic surgery procedures.