The Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life (ASQoL) questionnaire is a

patient-reported outcome A patient-reported outcome (PRO) is a health outcome directly reported by the patient who experienced it. It stands in contrast to an outcome reported by someone else, such as a physician-reported outcome, a nurse-reported outcome, and so on. PRO m ...

(PRO) measure which assesses the

quality of life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...

of patients with

ankylosing spondylitis Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a type of arthritis characterized by long-term inflammation of the joints of the spine typically where the spine joins the pelvis. Occasionally areas affected may include other joints such as the shoulders or hip ...

. The ASQoL is based on the needs-based quality of life model. It is a self-administered questionnaire which contains 18 items and takes up to four minutes to complete. Developed by Galen Research and published in 2003, the ASQoL has been used in clinical studies worldwide. The content for the measure was drawn from qualitative interviews that were conducted with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients. The draft version of the ASQoL was created and then went through several stages of testing to ensure it had good face validity, content validity, reproducibility and construct validity.

Content

Language adaptations

The ASQoL was initially developed in UK English and Dutch, but to date a total of 37 language versions have been adapted. The language adaptations can be broken down into waves:

Pharmaceutical use

Pharmaceutical companies began utilizing the ASQoL to test the effectiveness of newly developed

TNF inhibitor A TNF inhibitor is a pharmaceutical drug that suppresses the physiologic response to tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which is part of the inflammatory response. TNF is involved in autoimmune and immune-mediated disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, ...

s, which aid in the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis. Abbott has utilized the ASQoL to evaluate the impact of

adalimumab Adalimumab, sold under the brand name Humira, among others, is a monoclonal antibody used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, plaque psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativ ...

and other organizations like

Wyeth Wyeth, LLC was an American pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860 as ''John Wyeth and Brother''. It was later known, in the early 1930s, as American Home Products, before being renamed to Wyeth in ...

and the Medical Research Council have used it to evaluate the effect of

etanercept Etanercept, sold under the brand name Enbrel among others, is a biologic medical product that is used to treat autoimmune diseases by interfering with tumor necrosis factor (TNF), a soluble inflammatory cytokine, by acting as a TNF inhibitor. It h ...

Evaluation

Since the development of the ASQoL, several studies have been performed in order to evaluate and validate the measure. These studies include: * Validation studies for different language versions of the ASQoL which found good reliability and validity.

References

{{reflist Ankylosing spondylitis Patient reported outcome measures