Major impairments in HRQL were observed among Year 3 students, students with depressive symptoms and women. Medical schools should institute efforts to ensure that students' HRQL and emotional support are maintained, particularly during critical phases of medical training.

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Mothers of preterm infants with VLBW exhibited transient improvements in physical well-being during the first year after delivery. The presence of depressive symptoms in mothers and the diagnosis of PHH or BPD were negatively associated with QoL. Social, religious, and economic aspects were also important factors for the QoL of mothers of preterm infants with VLBW.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect the type of hip fracture (femoral neck or trochanteric) has on the Health-Related Quality of Life of elderly subjects. METHODS: Forty-five patients with hip fractures (mean 74.30 ± 7.12 years), 24 with a femoral neck fracture and 21 with a trochanteric fracture, completed the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) at baseline and four months after fracture. The Health-Related Quality of Life scores were compared according to fracture type, undisplaced and displaced femoral neck fractures, and stable and unstable trochanteric fractures. RESULTS: Compared to baseline, all patients scored lower in the physical functioning, role limitation-physical, bodily pain and vitality categories four months after the fracture had occurred. The SF-36 scores for all the scales did not differ significantly between patients with femoral neck versus trochanteric fractures, or between patients with displaced versus undisplaced femoral neck fractures and stable versus unstable trochanteric fractures. CONCLUSIONS: The mental and physical quality of life of elderly patients with a hip fracture is severely impaired one month after fracture, with partial recovery by the end of the fourth month. The negative impact on the Health-Related Quality of Life did not differ significantly according to fracture type

Este é um artigo publicado em acesso aberto (Open Access) sob a licença Creative Commons Attribution, que permite uso, distribuição e reprodução em qualquer meio, sem restrições, desde que o trabalho original seja corretamente citado. Adaptação transcultural e validação da escala de Saúde Global do PROMIS para a língua portuguesaCross-cultural adaptation and validation of the PROMIS Global Health scale in the Portuguese language Adaptación transcultural y validación de la escala de Salud Global del PROMIS a la lengua portuguesa

Brazilian educational guidelines reinforce patient-centered care communication skills as an important competence for medical students. The Four Habits Coding Scheme (4HCS) is an instrument used for teaching and assessing clinicians’ communication skills in a person-centered care approach. We aimed to translate and culturally adapt the 4HCS into Brazilian Portuguese. The translation process was accomplished in seven stages: initial translation, reconciliation, back translation, review by the author, independent review, consensus version through Delphi technique, review by a language coordinator, and pretest. During pretest, three independent observers assessed four medical consultations, which were performed by medical students and residents, that had been recorded in a real healthcare scenario. Reviewers had difficulty in reaching consensus on expressions referring to understanding the person as a whole, such as “Engage in small talk”, “Expansion of concerns”, “Elicit full agenda”, “Use patient’s frame of reference”, and “Explore plan acceptability”. They also had difficulty in reaching consensus on the translation of the word “clinician”, which was first translated as “physician”. Historical and cultural issues in the physician-patient relationship may have influenced this result. The Brazilian 4HCS is a culturally, conceptually, semantically and operationally sound instrument. It may represent an important advance for strengthening the person-centered care model in Brazil.

Background: Mental disorders often impair functioning in several areas of life and lead to unhappiness and suffering that may affect health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Satisfaction with participation is an indicator of HRQoL, and its measurement by patients reflects the impact of disease on their social, emotional and professional life. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS

The Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS), structured in Itens Banks, provides a new tool for evaluating results that apply to various chronic diseases through advanced statistical techniques (TRI) and computerized adaptive testing (CAT). The aim of this study was to culturally adapt the Items Banks of Anxiety and Depression of PROMIS to the Portuguese language. The process followed the recommendations of PROMIS through the advanced translation, reconciliation, back-translation, FACIT review, independent review, finalization, pre-test, and incorporation of the results from the pre-test. The translated version was pre-tested in ten patients, and items 3, 46, and 53 of the Bank of Anxiety and item 46 of the bank of Depression had to be changed. Changes affected equivalence of meaning, and the final version was consistent with the Brazilian population's linguistic and cultural skills. In conclusion, for the Brazilian population the translated version proved semantically and conceptually equivalent to the original.