Quality of Life Assessment Tool for Complex Abdominal Wall Hernia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing a Specific Quality of Life (QoL) Assessment Tool for Complex Abdominal Wall Hernia (CAWH) Patients
IRAS ID
332075
Contact name
Srinivas Chintapatla
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
York and Scarborough Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Abdominal wall hernia is a common condition, which causes symptoms of abdominal pain and discomfort. Hernias, particularly Complex Abdominal Wall Hernias (CAWH) are becoming increasingly common and studies have shown that it may affect patients emotionally as well as physically.
However, there is a lack of consensus about how to measure Quality of Life (QoL) in this patient group as there is currently no QoL assessment tool tailored to the CAWH population, that is based on patient experience.
Recent research revealed 13 QoL themes which are most important to patients (Smith et al., 2022). We intend to use this as the basis for designing a focussed CAWH Quality of Life assessment tool. We will recruit approximately 15 patients and 6 healthcare professionals from the York CAWH clinic and multi-disciplinary team respectively. These participants will be asked to use the QoL assessment tool and then interviewed about their experience with this. Using this information, we will refine the CAWH QoL assessment tool. Our aim is that, once validated, this tool could be used in a clinical setting.
This would help health professionals to understand a patient’s experience and offer more tailored support. It can also be important in the shared decision-making process and informed consent for surgical procedures as surgeons will be able to address the likelihood of different aspects of QoL changing following surgery.
A specific QoL tool could also be useful in research. It provides a useful outcome measure to help compare the efficacy of different management approaches in different groups.
Mesh related procedures have recently received bad press with numerous patients complaining of poor QoL post-operatively. A validated tool, produced by this research, will contribute to rectifying these opinions.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/YH/0286
Date of REC Opinion
21 Dec 2023
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion