Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Many patients with chronic wounds suffer not only directly from their wounds but also from high financial, social and psychological impairments, significantly reducing their quality of life. Objective of the study was to assess reliability, sensitivity to change, and validity of the module for chronic ulcers. Chronic wounds are burdensome and economically relevant diseases. However, prevalence rates are conflicting.
Annual costs amount to billions of Euros. Beside the direct burden of chronic wounds, leg ulcers, including venous ulcers, often cause the patients high financial, social and psychological impairment 3.
HRQoL refers to the quality of the life of an individual regarding physical, psychological, social and functional aspects 5. HRQoL has gained substantial interest in almost all fields of clinical medicine, including a variety of dermatological diseases Although HRQoL cannot be measured directly, many methodological studies have confirmed that it can be fairly assessed by questionnaires focussing on distinct areas contributing to HRQoL 12 , 13 , In order to provide an instrument that allows for comparisons between different patient populations but that is also specific and thus sensitive to certain skin diseases, we developed a modular HRQoL instrument: the Freiburg Life Quality Assessment FLQA.
Each specific FLQA version consists of a core module of generic items and a number of specific items for a distinct skin disease.
Of the original 81 items, 10 were maintained without changes, 10 items were modified and 61 items were omitted. The FLQA scales may be compared to three additional visual analogue scales VAS, 10 cm which indicate general health, quality of life in general and quality of life with respect to the wound. Subscales are computed by averaging the respective items on each dimension, and a total score is computed by averaging all items. Accordingly, the total score and the subscales range from 1 to 5.
