background and aims: nowadays introduction of regular blood transfusion therapy has obviously improved the life expectancy of patients with thalassemia. however, these patients face with newer challenges which influence their quality of life (qol). in this study, the aim of this study was to measure qol among patients with β-thalassemia major (β-tm). methods: a cross-sectional study was done at...

Common scales for physical functioning are not directly comparable without harmonization techniques, complicating attempts to pool data across studies. Our aim was to provide a standardized metric for physical functioning in adults based on basic and instrumental activities of daily living scaled to NIH PROMIS norms. We provide an item bank to compare the difficulty of various physical function...

OBJECTIVES Alcohol drinking is associated with ill health but less is known about its contribution to overall functioning. We aimed to examine whether alcohol drinking predicts self-reported mental and physical functioning 5-7 years later. DESIGN A prospective cohort study. SETTING Helsinki, Finland. PARTICIPANTS 40-year-old to 60-year-old employees of the City of Helsinki (5301 women and...

The aim of this study was to determine whether physical and psychological functioning can predict 6-year cognitive decline in older adults. A group of 669 participants aged 60 to 81 years was recruited from a longitudinal study (the Maastricht Aging Study). Physical functioning was measured in terms of perceived health and instrumental activities of daily living. Psychological functioning or mo...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to examine whether leisure time physical activity contributes to subsequent physical and mental health functioning among midlife employees. The associations were tested in three occupational cohorts from Finland, Britain and Japan. DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING Finland, Britain and Japan. PARTICIPANTS Prospective employee cohorts from the Finnish Helsin...

OBJECTIVE According to the Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) protocol for patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), therapists are advised to categorize patients in relatively active and passive patients. However, evidence to support the differences in physical functioning between these subgroups is limited. Using the baseline data from a multicentre randomized controlled trial (FatiGo), t...