Which domains of thyroid-related quality of life are most relevant? Patients and clinicians provide complementary perspectives

Thyroid. 2007 Jul;17(7):647-54. doi: 10.1089/thy.2007.0069.

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Emotions
  • Fatigue
  • Female
  • Goiter / physiopathology
  • Goiter / psychology
  • Humans
  • Hypothyroidism / physiopathology
  • Hypothyroidism / psychology
  • Interviews as Topic
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Physicians / psychology
  • Quality of Life*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Thyroid Diseases / physiopathology*
  • Thyroid Diseases / psychology*
  • Thyroid Function Tests