Which domains of thyroid-related quality of life are most relevant? Patients and clinicians provide complementary perspectives.
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.
Watt
Torquil
T
Department of Endocrinology, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. t.watt@rh.dk
Hegedüs
Laszlo
L
Rasmussen
Ase Krogh
AK
Groenvold
Mogens
M
Bonnema
Steen Joop
SJ
Bjorner
Jakob Bue
JB
Feldt-Rasmussen
Ulla
U
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