@article{a4fcfd50cb3911dc8674000ea68e967b,
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. DESIGN: 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",
keywords = "Adult, Aged, Emotions, Fatigue, Female, Goiter, Humans, Hypothyroidism, Interviews as Topic, Male, Middle Aged, Physicians, Quality of Life, Questionnaires, Thyroid Diseases, Thyroid Function Tests",
author = "Torquil Watt and Laszlo Heged{\"u}s and Rasmussen, \{Ase Krogh\} and Mogens Groenvold and Steen Bonnema and Bjorner, \{Jakob Bue\} and Ulla Feldt-Rasmussen",
year = "2007",
month = jul,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1089/thy.2007.0069",
language = "English",
volume = "17",
pages = "647--654",
journal = "Thyroid",
issn = "1050-7256",
publisher = "Mary Ann Liebert",
number = "7",
}