Patients' understanding of the concepts of health and quality of life.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to identify how persons' with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) understand the concepts of health and quality of life (QoL).


METHODS
A phenomenograpic approach was used to gauge variations in understanding of health and QoL. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 22 persons having RA. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed, resulting in a descriptive system consisting of categories and subcategories.


RESULTS
Health was primarily associated with being healthy/being free from disease, being able to function normally, experiencing well-being, and having a healthy lifestyle. Two above-mentioned domains, "being healthy" and "being able to function normally" overlapped with respondents' understanding of QoL. Additional perceived domains included attitudes towards life and, social and physical environments.


CONCLUSIONS
The results show that patients' understanding of the two concepts of health and QoL partially overlap and partially differ.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients' understanding of the concepts is individual and diverse, which needs to be taken into account in patient-physician consultations to ensure good communication. Furthermore, the interpretation of results based on patient-reported outcomes instruments measuring health status and/or QoL needs to be further studied over time to identify possible changes in these conceptions.
Fagerlind
Hanna
H
Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University, BMC, Box 580, 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden. Hanna.Fagerlind@farmaci.uu.se
Ring
Lena
L
Brülde
Bengt
B
Feltelius
Nils
N
Lindblad
Asa Kettis
AK
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011788:Quality of Life; D012938:Social Perception; D013548:Sweden; D013637:Tape Recording