Abstract
BackgroundThe aim of the study was to describe the health-related quality of life of Canarian population using information from the Canary Island Health Survey and three observational studies developed in the Canary Islands.MethodsA descriptive analysis was carried out on a sample of 5.549 Canarian citizens using information from 2004 Canary Island Health Survey and three observational studies on Alzheimer's disease, Stroke and HIV. EQ-5 D was the generic tool used for revealing quality of life of people surveyed. Besides the rate of people reporting moderate or severe decrease in quality of life, TTO-index scores and visual analogue scale were used for assessing health related quality of life of people that suffer a specific diseases and general population.ResultsSelf-perceived health status of citizens that suffer chronic diseases of high prevalence, identifies by the Canary Island Health Survey and other diseases such Alzheimer's disease, Stroke and HIV, independently examined in observational studies, are worse than self-perceived health of general population. Depression/anxiety and pain/discomfort were identified as the dimensions of the EQ-5 D with highest prevalence of problems. Alzheimer's disease and stroke were the illnesses with greater loss of quality of life.ConclusionsHealth related quality of life should be integrated into a set of information along with expectancy of life, incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases for developing health policy and planning health care activities The combination of information on health related quality of life from population health surveys with data from observational studies enlarges the sources of relevant information for setting health priorities and assessing the impact of health policies.
Highlights
The aim of the study was to describe the health-related quality of life of Canarian population using information from the Canary Island Health Survey and three observational studies developed in the Canary Islands
The reason that led us to combine these sources was to show a map of the health status of the Canary Island population that would be impossible to collect only with the information contained in the Canary Island health survey since diseases with devastating effects on human health but with low prevalence at the population level, like Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), Alzheimer’s disease and Stroke, are not captured adequately by general health surveys, e.g. differences between stages of the disease
Results obtained by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) method for specific diseases and general population are similar to Time Trade-Off (TTO) ones
Summary
The aim of the study was to describe the health-related quality of life of Canarian population using information from the Canary Island Health Survey and three observational studies developed in the Canary Islands. The health of a population has been measured using epidemiological indicators, morbidity (incidence and prevalence) and mortality [1]. It has become increasingly clear that mortality reduction cannot be the only objective for health care systems facing mostly chronic and degenerative diseases. The evolution of the economic evaluation methods of health care technologies has allowed and stimulated an increase in the interest in subjective health and quality of life of patients. As Sullivan notes [1], “Medicine’s epidemiological transition from acute to chronic disease is prompting an epistemological transition from primarily objective to primarily subjective evidence of health and health care effectiveness. Several studies reveals that a worse HRQOL is associated with higher mortality [6,7,8,9] and a greater use of healthcare services [8,10,11]
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