Disease-specific quality of life assessment in intermittent claudication: review.
OBJECTIVE
intermittent claudication (IC) is a common condition that has a major impact on the patients' quality of life (QoL). Generic QoL instruments often lack sensitivity to detect small but clinically significant variation in QoL. Disease-specific instruments may overcome this problem. This study aims to review various disease-specific QoL instruments available for use in IC and make recommendations for clinical utilization based on validity, reliability and responsiveness.


METHODS
a detailed literature search and extensive bibliography review of all papers relating to disease-specific QoL and IC.


RESULTS
several disease-specific QoL instruments are available for use in patients with IC. The most notable of these are the Claudication Scale (CLAU-S), Sickness Impact Profile - Intermittent Claudication (SIP(IC)) and the VascuQoL. The Walking Impairment Questionnaire (WIQ) is an objective measure of the patient's walking ability and not a QoL instrument.


CONCLUSIONS
many of the questionnaires are new and have undergone only a limited validation process. More work is required in this field before any one disease-specific QoL instrument can be recommended for use in patients with IC.
Mehta
T
T
Academic Vascular Unit, Hull Royal Infirmary, UK.
Venkata Subramaniam
A
A
Chetter
I
I
McCollum
P
P
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007383:Intermittent Claudication / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires