PSYC 3170 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Chronic Condition, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Body Image
20 Sep 2012
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Document Summary
The most important impetus for evaluating the quality of life is the psychological distress that comes with a chronic illness and stress can exacerbate the symptoms, making them worse. Quality of life has several components, specifically physical functioning, psychological status, social functioning, and disease or treatment related symptoms. In chrnoically ill patient, quality of life is assessed on how much the disease and its treatment interferes with the activities of daily life, such as sleeping, eating, going to work and engaging in social and recreational activities. For more advanced diseases, assessments include wether person is able to bathe, use the toilet, eat without assistance, be mobile and be continent. Sf-6 survey used to evaluate quality of life. Quality of life may fluctuate depending on the characteristics of the illness, acute changes in symptoms, and age-related changes. With some diseases (rheumatoid arthritis) quality of life declines with time.
