title: Which domains of thyroid-related quality of life are most relevant? Patients and clinicians provide complementary perspectives.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify how thyroid diseases impact the patients' lives and to select the most relevant quality of life (QoL) issues for a thyroid-specific questionnaire.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifteen thyroid experts and 80 thyroid outpatients (14 with nontoxic goiter, 12 nodular toxic goiter, 21 Graves' disease, 17 thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy, and 16 primary hypothyroidism) were interviewed.
  
  
  METHODS
  The relevance of 138 thyroid disease-related issues was rated during interviews. For each issue, three relevance measures were obtained: a diagnosis-specific patient rating, a diagnosis-specific expert rating, and a combined overall patient/expert rating. The 75 most relevant issues overall and the 15 most relevant issues in each patient category were selected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on the above, 92 issues were selected, covering a broad range of clinical and QoL domains. Across patient groups, broader QoL domains were most relevant, especially fatigue and emotional susceptibility. However, when focusing on individual patient groups, diagnosis-related physical symptoms were very relevant too. Patients rated issues about psychosocial problems and impact on daily life as more relevant, whereas clinicians focused on thyroid-characteristic issues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A broad range of QoL issues and physical symptoms are relevant for thyroid patients, particularly fatigue and emotional susceptibility. Patients and clinicians offer complementary perspectives on relevance.
authors: Department of Endocrinology, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. t.watt@rh.dk
authors: Torquil
authors: T
authors: Watt
authors: Laszlo
authors: L
authors: Hegedüs
authors: Ase Krogh
authors: AK
authors: Rasmussen
authors: Mogens
authors: M
authors: Groenvold
authors: Steen Joop
authors: SJ
authors: Bonnema
authors: Jakob Bue
authors: JB
authors: Bjorner
authors: Ulla
authors: U
authors: Feldt-Rasmussen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004644:Emotions; D005221:Fatigue; D005260:Female; D006042:Goiter / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007037:Hypothyroidism / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D013960:Thyroid Function Tests