Biomedical subjects

W J Furlong

Publications and source records attributed to W J Furlong.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

The Health Utilities Index (HUI) system for assessing health-related quality of life in clinical studies.

This paper reviews the Health Utilities Index (HUI) systems as means to describe health status and obtain utility scores reflecting health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The HUI Mark 2 (HUI2) and Mark 3 (HUI3) classification and scoring systems are described. The methods used to estimate multiattribute utility functions for HUI2 and HUI3 are reviewed. The use of HUI in clinical studies for a wide variety of conditions in a large number of countries is illustrated. HUI provides a comprehensive description of the health status of subjects in clinical studies. HUI has been shown to be a reliable, responsive and valid measure in a wide variety of clinical studies. Utility scores provide an overall assessment of the HRQoL of patients. Utility scores are also useful in cost-utility analyses and related studies. General population norm data are available. The widespread use of HUI facilitates the interpretation of results and permits comparisons. HUI is a useful tool for assessing health status and HRQoL in clinical studies.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗

PubMed1999

Preliminary translation and cultural adaptation of Health Utilities Index questionnaires for application in Argentina.

Quality-of-life assessment is being used increasingly in clinical research. This is true particularly in the case of survivors of cancer in childhood, where improving survival rates have raised concern regarding the long-term effects of medical cure. Health-status assessment and quality-of-life instruments have been developed for the most part in the English language, thus necessitating their translation and cultural adaptation for use in non-English-speaking countries. Our purpose was to develop a set of Spanish-language questionnaires for application with a population of children with cancer in a tertiary-care center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Health Utilities Index (HUI), a conceptual framework for assessing health status, was chosen for this study. Three distinct questionnaires, based on the HUI, were used: a self-completed one for health professionals and teachers (15Q) to report assessments of children and 2 interviewer-administered ones, for child survivors (42Q) to report assessments about their own health status and parents (45Q) to report assessments about their children's health status. The original translations and reviews were accomplished with direct oversight by members of the HUI Group, to ensure conceptual equivalence. The instruments were then tested in Buenos Aires by application to staff of the hematology-oncology service, childhood cancer patients and the parents of childhood cancer patients. Several modifications were made based on these tests. We concluded that the translation and cultural adaptation of these instruments was adequate for use with the groups tested in a pilot survey of survivors of childhood cancer in Argentina.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Multiattribute utility function for a comprehensive health status classification system. Health Utilities Index Mark 2.

The Health Utilities Index Mark 2 (HUI:2) is a generic multiattribute, preference-based system for assessing health-related quality of life. Health Utilities Index Mark 2 consists of two components: a seven-attribute health status classification system and a scoring formula. The seven attributes are sensation, mobility, emotion, cognition, self-care, pain, and fertility. A random sample of general population parents were interviewed to determine cardinal preferences for the health states in the system. The health states were defined as lasting for a 60-year lifetime, starting at age 10. Values were measured using visual analogue scaling. Utilities were measured using a standard gamble technique. A scoring formula is provided, based on a multiplicative multiattribute utility function from the responses of 194 subjects. The utility scores are death-anchored (death = 0.0) and form an interval scale. Health Utilities Index Mark 2 and its utility scores can be useful to other researchers in a wide variety of settings who wish to document health status and assign preference scores.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Evaluation of the burden of illness for pediatric asthmatic patients and their parents.

To examine the quality-of-life burden of asthma in a pediatric population, we systematically surveyed 100 patients with moderate asthma and one parent of each patient to determine the impact of the disease on day-to-day life. We found that perceptions of burden of illness varied by viewpoint. For patients, the symptoms of asthma form the largest component of the burden of the disease; in addition, more than half of the sample listed various emotional function items that were of at least moderate bother to them. Parents cited worry and concern about the disease and the medications used to treat it and their inability to relieve their child's symptoms as the major components of the burden of the disease. We conclude that although pediatric patients with moderate asthma find the respiratory symptoms of the disease troublesome, few children perceive that their asthma poses a major disruption of their lives. For the parents of these patients, strategies could be implemented by clinicians to ease the common worries and concerns surrounding the child's asthma.

Adolescent↗