A Cross-Sectional Concept Elicitation Study to Understand the Impact of Herpes Zoster on Patients’ Health-Related Quality of Life
Bibliographic record
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: After a chickenpox infection, the varicella zoster virus lies dormant in nerve cells and can be reactivated in later life to cause herpes zoster (HZ), also called shingles, a painful rash that may result in persistent postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Treatment options are limited, and HZ/PHN may have substantial negative effects on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This qualitative cross-sectional study explored the subjective patient experience and impact on HRQoL of HZ and PHN in adults aged ≥ 50 years in Canada. METHODS: Patients were eligible for the study if they were aged at least 50 years and had been diagnosed with HZ by a healthcare practitioner 7-60 days earlier for HZ patients and 90-365 days earlier for PHN patients. Eligible patients were invited to participate in concept elicitation interviews by telephone. Data from the interviews were transcribed and analyzed to identify key concepts related to symptoms and impacts on the patients' lives. RESULTS: A total of 32 patients participated, with a mean age of 61 years. Most (72%) were female. The most common symptoms reported were rash (n = 32), pain (n = 31), fatigue (n = 26), and itchiness (n = 20). The most commonly reported HRQoL domains affected were emotional functioning (n = 31), activities of daily living (n = 31), sleep (n = 29), physical functioning (n = 25) and hobbies (n = 21). A conceptual model was developed to summarize these symptoms and impacts. CONCLUSION: HZ negatively affected many dimensions of patients' HRQoL, particularly during the acute phase of illness. This qualitative study helps to broaden understanding of the subjective patient experience of HZ.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.006 | 0.009 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".