QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH UPPER GASTROINTESTINAL SYMPTOMS - ANIMPROVED EVALUATION OF TREATMENT REGIMENS

There is growing interest in measuring quality of life (QoL) in medici ne. Together with objective variables such as healing rate, as recorde d with endoscopy, this is believed to give a better basis for evaluati on of treatment regimens in patients with upper gastrointestinal disea ses. A strategy for the assessment of QoL in patients with upper gastr ointestinal symptoms is presented here. The QoL evaluation was based o n a battery of questionnaires, covering both general and specific aspe cts of life. General well-being was evaluated with the Psychological G eneral Well-being Index (PGWB), and subjective symptoms with two speci fic questionnaires, the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) a nd the Ulcus Esophagitis Subjective Symptoms Scale (UESS). This new st rategy was applied clinically in a study including 146 outpatients wit h suspected peptic ulcer. Initially, the patients reported a low degre e of general well-being as evaluated with the PGWB, but the values ret urned to those found in normal populations within 4 weeks. Evaluation of the GSRS and UESS with regard to internal consistency, construct va lidity, and the ability to detect changes showed them to be satisfacto ry. The psychometric documentation of the measures indicates that they may give reliable and clinically valid information when used for eval uation of medical treatments in upper gastrointestinal disease. Furthe r documentation of the methods is, however, needed to establish a gene rally acceptable QoL assessment in gastroenterology.