Summary
Quality of life (QOL) can be defined as the functional effect of an illness and its
consequent therapy upon a patient, as perceived by the patient. Studies on the impact
of chronic venous disease on quality of life are scarce compared to quality of life
research in other diseases. The purpose of this paper was to describe instruments
that assess the quality of life in patients with chronic venous disease and to review
the literature on this topic.
A computer search of the MedLine database was performed to identify papers; the bibliographies
of relevant articles were reviewed to obtain additional papers. Papers were included
if they described the development or use of a quality of life instrument for patients
with chronic venous disease.
A total of 25 papers were identified that fit the inclusion criteria. The studies
described in the papers used six different generic instruments and ten disease-specific
instruments. Quality of life in chronic venous disease was assessed in 12 studies.
Six studies compared different types of treatment for chronic venous disease where
QOL was an outcome measure. Despite the wide variety of measures used, results indicate
that the quality of life of patients with chronic venous disease is affected in the
physical domain mostly with regard to pain, physical functioning and mobility, and
that they suffer from negative emotional reactions and social isolation.
We feel that QOL should be a standard measure in future studies in patients with chronic
venous disease, preferably with a combination of generic and disease-specific measures.
Keywords
Review - venous disease - quality of life - medical psychology
