Chetter, I. C., Dolan, Paul, Spark, J., Scott, D. J. A. and Kester, R. C. (1997) Correlating clinical indicators of lower-limb ischaemia with quality of life. Cardiovascular Surgery, 5 (4). pp. 361-366. ISSN 0967-2109
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
The objectives of the study were to analyse the impact of increasing lower-limb ischaemia upon quality of life and to assess the correlation between clinical indicators of lower-limb ischaemia and such quality. A prospective observational study of a consecutive series of 235 patients (144 men and 91 women; median age 68 (range 41-87) years presenting with varying degrees of lower-limb ischaemia graded according to ISCVS criteria was performed. Data was collected at interview before any intervention. Clinical indicators of lower-limb perfusion included: intermittent claudication and maximum walking distance on standardized treadmill testing; ankle:brachial pressure indices and isotope limb blood flow. Quality of life analysis was performed using the EuroQol (EQ) questionnaire. This is a standardized generic instrument for describing health-related quality of life and consists of a descriptive system of five dimensions, each measured on three levels. Thus, a profile and two single indices of quality of life were derived using different methods. Increasing lower-limb ischaemia results in a statistically significant deterioration in both global quality of life and in all EQ-measured quality of life dimensions (P < 0.01 Kruskal-Wallis, ANOVA). The correlation between clinical indicators and quality of life is statistically significant but not sufficiently close (correlation coefficients < 0.6) to assume that variations in clinical indicators result in reciprocal variations in quality of life. In conclusion, as might be expected, a significant correlation exists between clinical indicators of lower-limb ischaemia and health-related quality of life. However, the low correlation coefficients emphasize how tenuous the association is. Thus, a significant improvement in the clinical indicators of lower-limb ischaemia cannot be assumed to impart a similar benefit on quality of life. The latter concept must therefore be analysed independently.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09672... |
| Additional Information: | © 1997 International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery |
| Divisions: | Social Policy |
| Subjects: | R Medicine > R Medicine (General) R Medicine > RD Surgery |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Mar 2011 10:42 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Sep 2024 21:08 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/33289 |
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