Comparison of a Generic to Disease-Targeted Health-Related Quality-of-Life Measures for Multiple Sclerosis

Deals with the comparison of a generic measure to a disease-targeted health-related quality-of-life measure for multiple sclerosis. The article is based on data obtained from 171 adults with multiple sclerosis, and compares a generic measure and a disease-targeted instrument. The major conclusion of this study is that results indicate that the disease-targeted scales provide unique information not captured by the generic measures. If a generic measure of health-related quality of life is desirable for a given study of multiple sclerosis, additional information will be gained by supplementing that measure with selected scales. The results of this study are consistent with studies from other diseases suggesting that when measuring health-related quality of life, one should supplement generic measures with disease-specific measures to get a full assessment of the impact of a therapy on health-related quality of life.