Self-reported quality of life for patients with progressive neurological diseases.

Progressive neurological diseases influence the life situation of patients either totally or partially. Such patients' own ratings of their life situation and well-being were made using a health-related quality of life HRQoL instrument called Quality of Life: status and change (QLsc). In general the interviewees rated their life domains in terms of positive response alternatives and no subgroups were found, e.g. with the same diagnoses, periods of sickness or age. The results suggest that the interviewees' experience of quality of life (QoL) is subjective and individual. The interviewees who had been to the rehabilitation centre several times rated their quality of life, in terms of positive response alternatives for the items covering overall experiences of bodily health, well-being and their whole life as well as for items in the social domain, to a greater extent than those who were visiting it for the first time.