Introduction

Assessing patients’ quality of life has received increasing scientific attention, mainly because questions have been raised regarding the direct benefits of medical treatments. Indeed, health authorities often emphasize the lack of correlation between increasing medical expenditure and the meager progress achieved in terms of life expectancy. On the other hand, for health care providers, modern medicine is about reducing the negative consequences of diseases and improving patients’ quality of life. To demonstrate a positive effect on such subjective outcomes, medical evaluations alone are not sufficient. New instruments must therefore be developed to measure a patient’s health status and its progression, based on parameters other than physiological ones. For this, quality-of-life tools are essential complements to physicians’ rating scales.