[SF-36 Health Survey in Rehabilitation Research. Findings from the North German Network for Rehabilitation Research, NVRF, within the rehabilitation research funding program].

The SF-36 Health Survey and its 12-item abridged form is an instrument for the assessment of health related quality of life that can be used with healthy persons and patient populations. Its use has been recommended within a large German multicentre rehabilitation research programme. The paper examines missing data across all five study projects of the North German Network for Rehabilitation Research (NVRF) as well as psychometric properties of the instrument.

Ifosfamide, carboplatin and etoposide combined with 41.8 degrees C whole body hyperthermia for malignant pleural mesothelioma.

We performed a phase II study combining 41.8 degrees C whole body hyperthermia with ICE chemotherapy, i.e.

[Epidemiology of orofacial pain].

Background: Results of international epidemiologic studies indicate that orofacial pain occurs in approximately 10 percent of the adult population. Women are constantly more often affected than men by a ratio of 2:1, on the average. Most studies show a decline of prevalence in older age.

Health-related quality of life in old age: preliminary report on the male perspective.

Health-related quality of life is a key element of successful aging. With life expectancy increasing, postmenopausal estrogen/gestagen replacement therapy has been under discussion for some time with the aim of achieving a higher quality of life in old age. For a long time, the relevance of hormonal aging was only discussed with reference to women; however, more recent work deals with concepts that affect both sexes.

The effect of the Val34Leu polymorphism in the factor XIII gene in infants with a birth weight below 1500 g.

Objectives: The 34Leu polymorphism of the factor XIII gene is associated with a low rate of brain infarction and a higher incidence of primary intracerebral hemorrhage in adults. We evaluated the effect of the polymorphism on the subsequent development of isolated intracranial hemorrhage and white matter disease in preterm infants with a birth weight <1500 g (very low birth weight [VLBW] infants).

Study Design: We studied 531 VLBW infants and 301 control infants born at term.

[Outcome measurement in musculoskeletal diseases: recommendation for a core set of scales for use in rehabilitation].

By application of a standardized core set of outcome measurement instruments, comparison between studies as well as meta-analyses in rehabilitation research can be facilitated. The German Society for Rheumatology has commissioned its working group on rehabilitation with the development of a proposal for such a core set of outcome measurement instruments. In a first step, dimensions for outcome measurement in rehabilitation were defined by a group of experts which represented rehabilitation hospitals, acute care hospitals, and research groups specialized in outcome measurement.

Factors associated with health status of older Americans.

Background: health status is increasingly used as a measure of healthcare effectiveness. How diseases and symptoms are associated with health status is not completely understood.

Objectives: to find diseases, symptoms and demographic factors associated with physical and mental health status in older Americans.

Low prevalence of large intraventricular haemorrhage in very low birthweight infants carrying the factor V Leiden or prothrombin G20210A mutation.

Unlabelled: The influence of genetic factors that increase coagulation on the extension of intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) in very low birthweight infants has not been studied previously. This study investigated the frequency and effect of the factor V Leiden and prothrombin G20210A mutations in a population-based cohort of 305 preterm infants with a birthweight below 1500 g. The overall prevalence of IVH was similar in infants with (n = 43) and without (n = 262) prothrombotic mutations (18.

Selection pressure for the factor-V-Leiden mutation and embryo implantation.

The factor-V-Leiden mutation is seen in high frequencies in white people, despite its contribution to second-trimester abortion, preterm birth, and deep-vein thrombosis. The reason for its high frequency is not known. We investigated 102 mother-child pairs who had had successful in-vitro fertilisation by intracytoplasmic sperm injection as a model for human implantation.

Health outcomes. New quality measure for Medicare.

Objective: A new measurement of health care quality for Medicare beneficiaries has been implemented by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). This paper describes the program, presents baseline data and highlights associated issues.

Design: The Health Outcomes Survey (HOS) is a longitudinal cohort mail survey.

International development of the Quality of Life in Depression Scale (QLDS).

Background: The Quality of Life in Depression Scale (QLDS) employs the needs-based model of quality of life (QoL) and was developed in the UK and The Netherlands as an outcome measure for clinical trials. This paper describes the production and psychometric assessment of nine new language versions for Canada (French and English), Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Spain and the US.

Methods: Three adaptation stages were employed; production of conceptually equivalent translations, field-test interviews and assessment of reliability and construct validity by survey of patients with major depression.

["Interface problems" in medical rehabilitation: development of a brief questionnaire for assessing the need for information and communication among general practitioners].

Against the background of current and future demographic changes the relevance of medical rehabilitation in the German health care system is generally acknowledged. It is a central element of treatment programmes especially for elderly and chronically ill patients. In recent years, problems due to lack of co-operation and communication as well as insufficient links between acute care and rehabilitation treatment have found increasing attention.

[Use of bone densitometry in the framework of prevention and therapy of osteoporosis. Example of a systematic evaluation (health technology assessment)].

There is an ongoing controversy concerning the use of bone density measurements within therapeutic and preventive strategies of osteoporosis. Since there are no randomized controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of bone density measurement with subsequent therapy we used a "critical pathway" model to determine possible benefit of tertiary, secondary and primary preventive strategies utilizing bone density measurement. In a first step data for fracture risk in each group are extracted from the literature.

Excess triiodothyronine as a risk factor of coronary events.

Background: Abnormalities in cardiac function, eg, arrhythmias and congestive heart failure, often accompany thyrotoxicosis. A relationship between thyroid hormone excess and the cardiac complications of angina pectoris and myocardial infarction (MI) remains largely speculative.

Methods: The results of thyroid function studies on blood samples drawn from a total of 1049 patients (aged 40 years or older) immediately on emergency medical admission were related to frequencies of angina pectoris and myocardial infarction as determined according to current diagnostic algorithms.

Influence of occupational factors on the relation between socioeconomic status and self-reported back pain in a population-based sample of German adults with back pain.

Study Design: Population-based cross-sectional postal survey and interview substudy.

Objectives: To examine the association between socioeconomic status and severe back pain and to determine whether this association can be explained by occupational factors.

Summary Of Background Data: Like other disorders, back pain and its consequences are inversely related to indicators of high socioeconomic status.

[Effectiveness of back-school programs in controlled trials. A review of the literature].

Backschools are utilized for primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of nonspecific low back pain while there is considerable doubt concerning their effectiveness. We present the results of controlled clinical trials that examine the effectiveness of back schools as reported in recent systematic reviews of the literature. An extensive literature search for systematic reviews summarizing the results of controlled trials was performed.

The QoL-AGHDA: an instrument for the assessment of quality of life in adults with growth hormone deficiency.

Several studies have shown that growth hormone deficiency in adults leads to poor well-being and other clinical consequences, and that these improve when the hormone is replaced. However, the studies employed generic measures of health status that miss important aspects of the patients' experience and that have inadequate reliability and responsiveness. This paper describes the European development and testing of the Quality of Life-Assessment of Growth Hormone Deficiency in Adults (QoL-AGHDA), a condition-specific quality of life measure for use in clinical trials and for the routine monitoring of patients.

[Health technology assessment in the international context: where does Germany stand? For the "German Scientific Working Group Technology Assessment for Health care"].

The evaluation of medical technologies, Health Technology Assessment (HTA), is gaining more and more importance in Germany. Starting from a comprehensive definition of the term medical technology, this article first describes the development of HTA since the seventies as an instrument for improving decision-making in health policy. HTA is presented as a repetitive cycle of a sequence of steps starting with the prioritization of topics to be evaluated to the analysis of the impact of the results.

[Rehabilitation-related expectations and motivations in patients with nonspecific backache. The development of a standardized questionnaire].

The success of rehabilitation programmes is assumed to be influenced by patients' expectations and motivations toward these regimens. Yet only few standardized measurement instruments of these patient attributes are available. This paper is concerned with the development of a standardized questionnaire measuring patients' expectations and motivations with respect to rehabilitation programmes.

[Measuring patient related outcome criteria in medical rehabilitation: how well do "indirect" and "direct" methods of measuring change agree?].

Purpose: To investigate agreement between "indirect" and "direct" methods for measuring outcome of inpatient rehabilitation programmes.

Method: A consecutive sample of 610 patients with musculoskeletal, cardiopulmonary and other diseases completed questionnaires 2 weeks before and 4 to 6 weeks after inpatient rehabilitation treatment. Overall response rate was 80%.

The international development of the RGHQoL: a quality of life measure for recurrent genital herpes.

This paper describes the international development and psychometric testing of the Recurrent Genital Herpes Quality of Life Questionnaire (RGHQoL), a condition-specific quality of life (QoL) instrument. The theoretical foundation for the measure is the needs-based model of QoL and the content of the instrument was derived from in-depth qualitative interviews with relevant patients in the UK. Versions of the RGHQoL were required for the UK, USA, Italy, Germany, France and Denmark for use in international clinical trials.

Fetal hemoglobin in starvation ketosis of young women.

Ketones can reactivate the production of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) in vitro and in vivo. A reactivation of HbF by ketones, which are generated during starvation, remains largely speculative. Therefore, we investigated HbF in 31 women with anorexia nervosa or bulimia, using both of these as models of intermittent starvation ketosis.

[Comparative evaluation of a German version of the Health Assessment Questionnaire and the Hannover Functional Capacity Questionnaire].

Objective: To translate the Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ) into a German version, to validate and to compare its properties with two different versions of the Hannover Functional Ability Questionnaire (HFAQ) in a German speaking population.

Methods: The test-retest reliability was tested by Pearson correlation in 32 outpatients of the Department of Rheumatology of the Medizinische Hochschule Hannover. For retesting, the questionnaire was mailed to them 1 week later.