Quality of Life Assessments in the Evaluation of Gastroesophageal Reflux and Peptic Ulcer Disease before, during and after Treatment

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Abstract
It has recently been suggested that Quality of Life (QOL) be used in the evaluation of new medical treatment regimens together with cost-benefit, efficacy and safety. In this overview we point out some aspects of use of the Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWB) in patients with peptic ulcer and reflux disease gained from our own investigations in later years.QOL was assessed using questionnaires before diagnosis, during medical healing treatment and at a 1-year follow-up in peptic ulcer disease or before and after surgery in reflux disease.Untreated patients with unknown diagnosis had low QOL scores. With treatment, scores increased rapidly to supernormal values and fell off to normal values during the follow-up year.QOL evaluations seem sensitive and reflect the patient's subjective feeling of disease. They add another new aspect of treatment effect not earlier included in treatment evaluations.