Quality of life: A reflection of symptoms and concerns

Background: Upper gastrointestinal complaints are common in the general population. Most patients consulting have no or only minimal markers of disease. It is important to evaluate new methods for the assessment and follow-up of treatment of these new patient groups. Methods and results: Recent publications on Quality of Life (QOL) and upper gastrointestinal disease are reviewed with the specific aim of relating the effect of disease symptoms and patient concerns to the outcome of investigations. We found that QOL is adversely affected in upper gastrointestinal disorders and that effective treatment medically or surgically normalizes the scores. There is a good correlation between degree of symptoms and QOL outcome. Patients' concern affects the outcome. Conclusion: QOL assessments are helpful in evaluating the impact of upper gastrointestinal disease.