[Psychological, social and medical items used to assess health status of patient with osteoarthritis].
One of the characteristic of the modern world is the continuum increase of the elderly people, and subsequently the increase of pathology related to ageing. Among the most common health problems, related to age increase, is joint related pathology, mainly arthritis. Assessing life quality of the patients with arthritis is using the hypothesis that their health status, depends on the patients ability to take decisions and to implement the decisions taken. The new concept, introduced by the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), in order to evaluate life quality of the patients with arthritis, is that of the "healthy ill person". This concept reconsiders "health" and "illness" as opposites, and does appreciate that "health" and "illness" are both part of a continuum. The standardized tool used to appreciate the life quality of the patients with chronic illnesses is the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP). The authors did apply the Romanian version of the NHP to 50 patients with arthritis registered in the Rheumatology Out-Patients Clinic, no. 1, Iasi. The results analysis demonstrated that the NHP questionnaire is a valuable tool able to assess health status of patients with arthritis. The NHP is worthy to use also for clinical monitoring of the patients with arthritis. An interesting analysis result is that the duration of the illness does not correlate with the self-perception of the degree of severity of the arthritis. The most specific scales are those related to Pain and Mobility.
Vartolomei
Clementa
C
Institutul de Sănătate Publică Iaşi.
Cozma
A G T
AG
Bejan
Vl D
VD
D000465:Algorithms; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000523:psychology; D010045:Outpatients; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012383:Romania; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014177:Translations