Quality of life in motor neurone disease--towards a more practical assessment tool?

Abstract

The optimal approach to the evaluation of quality of life (QoL) in people with motor neurone disease (MND)/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is still unclear. The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Assessment Questionnaire (ALSAQ-40) has been a very significant step towards a disease specific QoL instrument for MND and asks the subject to give one of five possible answers to a series of 40 questions. 3 These responses give an overall score with subscores in five domains (physical mobility, activities of daily living, eating and drinking, communication, and emotional functioning).