The year in health care delivery and outcomes research

Are all outcomes in chronic heart failure rated equally? An argument for a patient-centred approach to outcome assessment

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a multi-dimensional and complex syndrome. Outcome measures are important for determining both the efficacy and quality of care and capturing the patient's perspective in evaluating the outcomes of health care delivery. Capturing the patient's perspective via patient-reported outcomes is increasingly important; however, including objective measures such as mortality would provide more complete account of outcomes important to patients. Currently, no single measure for CHF outcomes captures all dimensions of the quality of care from the patient's perspective. To describe the role of outcome measures in CHF from the perspective of patients, a structured literature review was undertaken. This review discusses the concepts and methodological issues related to measurement of CHF outcomes. Outcome assessment at the level of the patient, provider and health care system were identified as being important. The perspectives of all stakeholders should be considered when developing an outcomes measurement suite to inform CHF health care. This paper recommends that choice of outcome measures should depend on their ability to provide a comprehensive, comparable, meaningful and accurate assessment that are important to patient.

Poor health-related quality of life in patients with peripheral arterial disease: Type D personality and severity of peripheral arterial disease as independent predictors

BACKGROUND

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is associated with poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL), but individual differences in this patient-based outcome are not fully understood. We examined the impact of PAD severity, invasive treatment, and type D personality, defined as tendencies to experience negative emotions and be socially inhibited, on HRQOL in a 1-year follow-up study.

METHOD

At their first visit to the department of surgery at the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Tilburg, The Netherlands, 203 consecutive PAD patients completed the DS14 type D personality and RAND-36 questionnaires (all self-report). Clinical data were derived from patients' medical files and included ankle-brachial index (ABI), initial and absolute claudication distance (ICD, ACD), and invasive treatment. The main outcome was HRQOL at 1-year follow-up.

RESULTS

HRQOL improved between baseline and follow-up, and invasive treatment led to significant improvements in the subscales Physical Functioning (P = .005) and Pain (P = .003). Type D patients were severely impaired in their HRQOL compared with other patients at baseline (P < .01) and at follow-up (P < .05). ABI and ACD also predicted HRQOL at follow-up. After adjusting for ABI and ACD, invasive treatment and type D personality independently predicted all HRQOL domains, except for Physical Functioning. Overall, type D personality predicted increased risk for both poor General Health (odds ratio [OR], 3.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.69 to 8.08; P = .001) and poor Mental Health (OR, 6.01; 95% CI, 2.44 to 14.79, P < .0001) at 1 year after the PAD diagnosis.

CONCLUSION

Despite an overall improvement, type D patients remained more impaired in 1-year HRQOL than other patients, adjusting for ABI and ACD. Type D personality is a psychologic risk factor that predicts poor patient-based outcomes in PAD and should be taken into account when HRQOL in PAD is evaluated.

Trends in mortality and hospital admission rates for abdominal aortic aneurysm in England and Wales, 1979-1999

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to investigate trends in population-based mortality, hospital admission and case fatality rates for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) from 1979 to 1999.

METHODS

This was an analysis of routine statistics from 79 495 death certificates in England and Wales and 3217 hospital inpatient admissions in the Oxford Region.

RESULTS

Mortality rates for all AAAs increased between 1979 and 1999 from 13 to 25 per million in women and from 80 to 115 per million in men. Admission rates increased in the same time interval from three to 22 admissions per million per year in women, and from 52 to 149 per million per year in men. Case fatality rates for all non-ruptured AAAs that were operated on decreased from 25.8 to 9.0 per cent and for all ruptured AAAs from 69.9 to 54.4 per cent.

CONCLUSION

Mortality rates and hospital admission rates for AAA rose in men and even more so in women between 1979 and 1999. Perioperative mortality for ruptured AAA declined a little during the study but nonetheless was still very high at the end. This reinforces the importance of detecting and treating AAA before rupture occurs.

Impaired health status and invasive treatment in peripheral arterial disease: a prospective 1-year follow-up study

OBJECTIVE

It has been argued that health status and quality of life (QOL) should be taken into account in the treatment policy of patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). In cardiac patients, it has been shown that poor perceived health status is an independent predictor of mortality and hospitalization. We therefore examined (1) the role of health status, QOL, and clinical indices of disease severity as determinants of invasive treatment in patients with PAD and (2) the effect of invasive treatment on health status and QOL.

METHODS

At their first visit, patients completed the RAND 36-item Health Survey and World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment instrument questionnaires to assess health status and QOL, respectively. During the 1-year follow-up period, data concerning hospitalization were derived from the patients' medical files. Furthermore, patients completed the RAND 36 and the World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment instrument again at 1-year follow-up. The setting was a vascular outpatient clinic of a teaching hospital in Tilburg, The Netherlands; participants were 200 consecutive patients newly diagnosed with intermittent claudication, a common expression of PAD. Diagnosis was based on history, physical examination, treadmill walking distance, and ankle-brachial pressure indices. Main outcome measures were (1) invasive treatment of PAD that took place during the 1-year follow-up, derived from the patients' medical files, and (2) health status and QOL after 1 year of follow-up.

RESULTS

After 1 year of follow-up, 107 patients (53.5%) were event free, whereas 77 patients (38.5%) had been hospitalized for invasive treatment of PAD. Sixteen patients (8%) were hospitalized for other cardiovascular reasons. In a multivariate logistic regression model, age (odds ratio [OR], 0.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.91-0.99; P = .024), pain-free walking distance (OR, 2.74; 95% CI, 1.05-7.17; P = .04), and physical functioning (OR, 4.46; 95% CI, 1.79-11.12; P = .001) were independent predictors of invasive treatment of intermittent claudication. After 1 year of follow-up, patients who were treated invasively experienced a significant improvement in their physical functioning ( P = .004), role limitations due to emotional problems ( P = .018), and bodily pain ( P = .026).

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with poor self-reported physical functioning, limited walking distance, and a younger age were likely to be treated invasively. The physician's clinical judgment about when to intervene adequately reflects the patient's own opinion about his or her health status. Invasive treatment led to a significant improvement in patients' health status. These findings indicate the effectiveness of the strategy to include patients' perceived physical functioning into the process of clinical decision-making.