Assessing the health related quality of life in Flanders and the possible factors influencing it

Abstract

Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important outcome parameter in clinical trial and epidemiological research to support policy decision making or to monitor population health. With scarce resources for the provision of health care, choices have to be made about how those resources are allocated. The aim of this study was to identify background characteristics of children, adults and elderly that are important in determining the HRQoL of these 3 age groups; to model HRQoL as a function of these covariates and to investigate if HRQoL is more alike in members from the same household. Methodology: Statistical models were applied on two datasets: one sample of individuals belonging to one of three age groups (children, adults or elderly), another sample of households, with information of all members of each household. HRQoL was measured using VAS and EQ-5D score for each individual. The relationships between the two HRQoL responses and these factors were modeled usin