The burden of travel on quality of life in stone patients

摘要

The negative impact of nephrolithiasis on patient quality of life (QOL) has been well-documented,1 but the impact that travelling to receive care and treatment of stones has not been well-studied. Narang et al2 performed a unique study, using a well-validated stone-specific patient-related outcome measures (PROM) instrument (the Wisconsin Stone Quality of Life questionnaire [WISQOL]) to investigate the impact of distance from treatment center on patient QOL. They showed that increasing distance is correlated with reduced WISQOL scores.