Measurement of the quality of life as a element in assessing therapeutic effects in essential arterial hypertension. Methodologic aspects

• Published in: Ugeskrift for læger Vol. 152; no. 6; p. 383
• Main Authors: Bech, P, Poulsen, D L, Garre, K, Rasmussen, K, Jensen, H E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Danish
• Published: Denmark 05.02.1990
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Female; Humans; Hypertension - drug therapy; Male; Methods; Middle Aged; Quality of Life
• ISSN: 0041-5782; 1603-6824

The quality of life has become an important element in assessment of medicinal treatment. As an independent expression, the quality of life covers the human disappointments which a medical disease may involve ("discomfort") whereas the clinical dysfunction caused by the disease is covered by the expression "disability". In the treatment of essential arterial hypertension, the clinical symptoms of the disease are few or none ("asymptomatic hypertension"). In an investigation of 303 patients in general practice for arterial hypertension, the significance of the frequency of dosage of metoprolol (Seloken) was assessed by means of measurement of the quality of life by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), a questionnaire which contains components such as fatigue, sleep, anxiety and depression. No advantages in the quality of life were found in administering antihypertensive drugs once or twice daily. From the methological point of view, the following conditions were found which should be taken into consideration in future investigations in this field: The GHQ was found to be easy for the patients to employ. This is important as the quality of life is a personally experienced dimension. The questionnaire correlated adequately with the visual analogue scales. Approximately 1/3 of the patients had reduced quality of life at the commencement of the investigation as assessed by GHQ. A multiple regression analysis revealed that the reduced well-being was due to social, life events and side effects. It is therefore recommended that these aspects should be described when patients commence a course of medicinal treatment i.e. the social life events and side effects of the medicine in connection with the actual subjective dimension of quality of life.