Lim Vanessa K
Department of Psychology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Mov Disord. 2007 May 15;22(7):998-1003. doi: 10.1002/mds.21486.
Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL) was assessed by the SF-36 in a group of patients with dystonia in New Zealand and Australia. The caregivers of these people were also asked to participate. Low scores from the SF-36 indicate a disability or limitation in HRQL. Compared with the national norms of the respective countries, the participants with dystonia for both countries were significantly lower in the eight dimensions of the SF-36, suggesting that patients with dystonia have lower HRQL compared with their respective national norms without dystonia. In contrast to the patients with dystonia, caregivers did not show lower HRQL scores than their national norms, suggesting that while dystonia affects the HRQL of those with the disorder, their caregivers may be less affected. Descriptive and demographic information were also gathered and are discussed. An important factor that may affect the HRQL of patients with dystonia is the length of time required to be diagnosed in this sample and the number of medical practitioners the patients consulted prior to a confirmed diagnosis.
在新西兰和澳大利亚的一组肌张力障碍患者中，采用SF-36量表评估健康相关生活质量（HRQL）。这些患者的照料者也被要求参与。SF-36量表得分低表明在HRQL方面存在残疾或受限情况。与各自国家的全国常模相比，两个国家的肌张力障碍参与者在SF-36的八个维度上得分显著更低，这表明肌张力障碍患者与各自国家无肌张力障碍的全国常模相比，其HRQL更低。与肌张力障碍患者不同，照料者的HRQL得分并未低于其国家常模，这表明虽然肌张力障碍会影响患者的HRQL，但他们的照料者可能受影响较小。还收集并讨论了描述性和人口统计学信息。在该样本中，可能影响肌张力障碍患者HRQL的一个重要因素是确诊所需的时间长度以及患者在确诊前咨询的医生数量。
