Impact of vascular conditions on quality of life
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The design, development and commissioning of patient focused vascular services - impact of vascular conditions on quality of life.
IRAS ID
157510
Contact name
Nana Theodorou
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 31 days
Research summary
There are five main vascular disease areas: peripheral arterial disease, aortic aneurysm, carotid disease, varicose veins and venous insufficiency. The treatments for these vascular diseases are changing due to alterations in how they are delivered, and the introduction of new technologies. These changes mean that it is necessary to be able to find out how they impact on patients - in particular on their quality of life.
One way of doing this is through Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs). These are questionnaires that ask patients how an illness or treatment has affected them. The aim of this study will be to review the questionnaires that have been used in other studies and to examine how well they capture the impact of the disease for the five vascular conditions. This will be necessary because the PROMs are likely to have been developed in different countries and using different methods.
In order to see how well the PROMs capture impacts on quality of life 15 patients, for each of the five areas, will be interviewed and asked to comment. The interviews will also explore how well the particular PROMs that have been identified capture this impact. In addition, patients and staff will be asked in separate focus groups to confirm the findings from the interviews.
The final stage of the project will be to use the PROMs that best capture the impact in an electronic patient questionnaire (EPAQ-VASC). This is a web based system that allows patients to complete questions about their symptoms and quality of life before seeing a clinician. This will mean that clinicians in the clinical area will have access to information about the patients’ condition, concerns and quality of life. Focus groups will be used to demonstrate how the EPAQ-VASC system works and to gain feedback for improvements.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/YH/1117
Date of REC Opinion
25 Sep 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion