Assessing the Impact of Diabetes Screening on Quality of Life or Quality of Health?
Semantics are important
- Jane Speight, MSC
- 1From Health Psychology Research, the Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London Correspondence, Egham, Surrey, U.K.
Edelman et al. (1) do not, as their title indicates, measure the “impact of screening on quality of life,” but rather they measure the effect of screening on health status. Their premise is that it is unclear whether being diagnosed with diabetes might have a potentially detrimental “labeling” effect or whether treatment of previously unrecognized symptoms might improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Many important studies, including the U.K. Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) (2), have mistakenly assumed that health status, HRQoL, and quality of life (QoL) are interchangeable terms. However, confusing terminology leads to misinterpreted data and misleading conclusions and titles.
Throughout their article, …
