We all give lip service to health-related quality of life (HRQOL), but few of us afford it the weight it deserves outside its use as an outcome measure in research. It is defined (very broadly) by the WHO as a 'child's goals, expectations, standards or concerns about their overall health and related domains'.1 We receive outcome information like this constantly, but rarely process it fully and given that children from 7 years upwards are capable of reliably reporting their status should, I'm convinced, be doing more. There are a number of scores in use, both general (Peds QL the most widely used) and disease specific ones2 and, given the quality of health (provision and experience) flavour in several of this month's papers (the theme to my choices) got me thinking how I could incorporate the philosophy (if not the formal scoring) better on a day to day basis.
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