Der Unfallchirurg
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Health-related quality of life is a multidimensional concept which describes relevant aspects of physical, emotional and social well-being as reported by patients. Numerous generic and disease-specific instruments for measuring health-related quality of life have been developed and in addition preference-based instruments are available for use in health economic evaluation. ⋯ In the context of a brief description of these questionnaires several examples of their use in studies of patients after trauma are given. These examples show that successful conceptual and methodological developments in quality of life research provide a sound basis for patient-oriented outcome assessment after trauma.
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The number of elderly and old patients with fractures is steadily increasing. Identification of relevant functional deficits and comorbidities is crucial for an efficient treatment strategy and outcome assessment in this patient group. ⋯ A combination of disease and body region-specific scores with generic scores seems to be reasonable. It can also be sensible to include instruments for health economic analyses.