Quality of Life Endpoint
A clinical trial outcome measure that assesses the overall impact of a disease and its treatment on a patient's physical, mental, and social wellbeing. Validated instruments such as the IWQOL-Lite (Impact of Weight on Quality of Life) are used in obesity treatment trials.
Technical Context
Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) instruments capture physical functioning (mobility, self-care), psychological wellbeing (anxiety, depression, body image), social functioning (relationships, work), and symptom burden. The IWQOL-Lite for weight management includes physical function, self-esteem, sexual life, public distress, and work dimensions. In GLP-1 RA weight management trials, significant improvements in HRQoL have been demonstrated alongside weight loss, supporting the argument that weight loss with these drugs improves overall wellbeing beyond metabolic parameters. Health utility measures (EQ-5D) can be used in health economic analyses to calculate quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) for cost-effectiveness assessment — critical for reimbursement decisions by bodies like NICE (UK) and ICER (US).