Martin Holzhausen

Publications (15) View all

• Article: Acute Cerebrovascular Disease in the Young: The Stroke in Young Fabry Patients Study.

  Arndt Rolfs, Franz Fazekas, Ulrike Grittner, Martin Dichgans, Peter Martus, Martin Holzhausen, Tobias Böttcher, Peter U Heuschmann, Turgut Tatlisumak, Christian Tanislav, [......], Michael G Hennerici, Manfred Kaps, Christof Kessler, Karl Lackner, Eduard Paschke, Wolfgang Meyer, Hermann Mascher, Olaf Riess, Edwin Kolodny, Bo Norrving
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  ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Strokes have especially devastating implications if they occur early in life; however, only limited information exists on the characteristics of acute cerebrovascular disease in young adults. Although risk factors and manifestation of atherosclerosis are commonly associated with stroke in the elderly, recent data suggests different causes for stroke in the young. We initiated the prospective, multinational European study Stroke in Young Fabry Patients (sifap) to characterize a cohort of young stroke patients. METHODS: Overall, 5023 patients aged 18 to 55 years with the diagnosis of ischemic stroke (3396), hemorrhagic stroke (271), transient ischemic attack (1071) were enrolled in 15 European countries and 47 centers between April 2007 and January 2010 undergoing a detailed, standardized, clinical, laboratory, and radiological protocol. RESULTS: Median age in the overall cohort was 46 years. Definite Fabry disease was diagnosed in 0.5% (95% confidence interval, 0.4%-0.8%; n=27) of all patients; and probable Fabry disease in additional 18 patients. Males dominated the study population (2962/59%) whereas females outnumbered men (65.3%) among the youngest patients (18-24 years). About 80.5% of the patients had a first stroke. Silent infarcts on magnetic resonance imaging were seen in 20% of patients with a first-ever stroke, and in 11.4% of patients with transient ischemic attack and no history of a previous cerebrovascular event. The most common causes of ischemic stroke were large artery atherosclerosis (18.6%) and dissection (9.9%). CONCLUSIONS: Definite Fabry disease occurs in 0.5% and probable Fabry disease in further 0.4% of young stroke patients. Silent infarcts, white matter intensities, and classical risk factors were highly prevalent, emphasizing the need for new early preventive strategies.Clinical Trial Registration Information-clinicaltrial.gov identifier: NCT00414583.
  Stroke 01/2013; · 5.73 Impact Factor
• Article: FLQAI - A Questionnaire on Quality of Life in Fecal Incontinence: German translation and validation of Rockwood et al.'s (2000) Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale (FIQLS).

  A Ahnis, M Holzhausen, T H Rockwood, H-P Rosemeier
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  ABSTRACT: The aim of the study was to produce a German version (FLQAI) of the Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale (FIQLS) by Rockwood et al., an English-language measure of quality of life in fecal incontinence 1. The FIQLS has 29 items assigned to the four subscales of lifestyle, coping/behavior, depression/self-perception and embarrassment. The FIQLS 1 was translated into German and adapted. Indicators of test quality (convergent and discriminant validity, reliability, confirmatory factor analysis) were determined in N = 88 subjects (mean age = 71.5 years) with fecal incontinence and urinary incontinence (control group, n = 29). Three of the four scales of the FLQAI had an acceptable internal reliability. The scales of the FLQAI showed significant correlations with selected subscales of the SF-36 2, the ADS 3 and the FISI 4 (convergent validity). Two of the four scales of the FLQAI discriminated between patients with fecal incontinence and patients with urinary incontinence (discriminant validity). The confirmatory factor analysis did not reveal a uniform fit of the data obtained with the German version with the original four-factor solution of the original version of the questionnaire. The Questionnaire on Quality of Life in Fecal Incontinence (FLQAI) is a German-language self-rating questionnaire with satisfactory psychometric properties for measuring disease-specific quality of life in elderly patients with fecal incontinence.
  Zeitschrift für Gastroenterologie 07/2012; 50(7):661-9. · 0.90 Impact Factor
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  Available from: Martin Holzhausen

  Article: Die Patientenperspektive in der Erfassung von Lebensqualität im Alter

  M. Holzhausen, U. Bornschlegel, T. Fischer
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  ABSTRACT: Lebensqualität ist ein in der geriatrischen Versorgung häufig verwendetes multidimensionales Konstrukt. In zunehmendem Maße wird bei der Beurteilung die Patientenperspektive einbezogen. Wichtige subjektive Facetten von Lebensqualität sind Schmerzerleben und Lebenszufriedenheit. In drei Ansätzen werden Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer Integration der subjektiven Sicht scheinbar besonders benachteiligter Patientengruppen in die Erfassung von Lebensqualität dargestellt und diskutiert: 1) Selbstauskunft zum Schmerzerleben aphasischer Patienten kann in vielen Fällen über nonverbale und an das Störungsbild adaptierte verbale Kommunikation eingeholt werden. 2) Auch das Schmerzerleben von Menschen mit Demenz kann bis in mittlere Krankheitsstadien hinein durch Selbstauskunft erhoben werden; im Falle von schweren Demenzen wurden zwar Beobachtungsverfahren entwickelt, deren genaue Bedeutung hinsichtlich des Schmerzerlebens aber noch Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Debatte ist. 3) Individuelle inhaltliche und strukturelle Unterschiede in der Konstruktion von Lebenszufriedenheit multimorbider älterer Menschen ohne kognitive Beeinträchtigungen können über ein individualisiertes Messinstrument (FLQM) abgebildet werden. Dieses ermöglicht sowohl die Einschätzung globaler und bereichsspezifischer Lebensqualität als auch die differenzielle Bestimmung der maßgeblichen Determinanten von längsschnittlichen Veränderungen. In allen Ansätzen werden Potenziale für eine erweiterte Integration der Patientenperspektive in die Erfassung und Bewertung ihrer Lebensqualität sichtbar. Quality of life is a multidimensional construct commonly used in geriatric health care. The patient’s view is increasingly incorporated in its determination. Pain and satisfaction with life are two important subjective facets of quality of life. Potentials and limits of an integration of the subjective view in seemingly heavily disadvantaged patient populations are discussed using three approaches: 1) Self-reports on pain in aphasic patients can often be obtained by means of nonverbal communication or verbal communication adapted to the disorder. 2) Even in people suffering from dementia, pain can be assessed in self-reports into the middle stages of the disease. In severe dementia, observational methods have been developed, but their significance with respect to the experience of pain is still being debated in the scientific community. 3) Differences in content and structure in the individual construction of life-satisfaction in multimorbid elderly without cognitive impairment can be reproduced by an individualized measurement tool (FLQM). It allows for determination as well of global and domain-specific life-satisfaction as of differential determinants of longitudinal changes. All three approaches highlighted potentials for an extended integration of the patient’s perspective in the assessment and evaluation of their quality of life. SchlüsselwörterLebensqualität-Patientenperspektive-Aphasie-Schmerz-Demenz KeywordsQuality of life-Patient view-Aphasia-Pain-Dementia
  Zeitschrift für Gerontologie + Geriatrie 04/2012; 42(5):355-359. · 0.61 Impact Factor
• Article: Individualized measurement of quality of life in older adults: development and pilot testing of a new tool

  Martin Holzhausen, Adelheid Kuhlmey, Peter Martus
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  ABSTRACT: We describe theoretical background, development, and piloting of a measure for quality of life in older adults that specifically takes into account the subjective perspective. Although quality of life is usually subjectively assessed, normative thresholds for “the good life” are most often set by a third party. The new tool FLQM asks for respondents to name, rate, and weight those domains in life that are most important for their life-satisfaction solely from their own point of view. Construct validity was pilot-tested in two samples of elders (N 1=44; N 2=90). Correlations were in the medium range in both studies and support the questionnaire’s validity. There were no age or gender differences on total score. However, in Study 1 as well as in Study 2 older subjects named significantly fewer domains than did younger participants. Further, in Study 1 the overall number of distinct domains generated by the participants diminished with age—the “interindividual pool of domains” shrank. Implications of this age-associated narrowing of domainscope are discussed on a background of adaptation theories. Concluding, the new questionnaire seems apt to assess older peoples’ quality of life even in a physically very ill population, but needs further testing, especially regarding its reliability. This is currently being undertaken in a larger longitudinal sample to assure psychometric properties. KeywordsLife-satisfaction-Quality of life-Validation study-Old age-Assessment
  European Journal of Ageing 04/2012; 7(3):201-211. · 1.27 Impact Factor
• Article: Validation of a new patient-generated questionnaire for quality of life in an urban sample of elder residents.

  Martin Holzhausen, Peter Martus
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  ABSTRACT: PURPOSE: To provide evidence for the validity of the Fragebogen zur Lebensqualität multimorbider älterer Menschen (FLQM; English: Quality of life in elders with multimorbidity), a new tool for the assessment of life-satisfaction as a subjective indicator of quality of life in old age. METHODS: The FLQM measures overall life-satisfaction based on those self-generated domains in life that are most important to the respondent. Construct validity (correlations with convergent and divergent scales) and differential validity (subgroup differences with respect to age and limitations in everyday functioning) were analyzed in an urban sample of older adults (n = 299; 54.6% male; Mean (age) = 75.65 years, SD = 6.57). RESULTS: Correlations of FLQM with measures of similar constructs were close (r = 0.35-0.50; p < 0.001). There were no age-group differences. However, subjects with self-reported impairment in functioning scored significantly lower on the FLQM. Also, the relationship between FLQM and self-rated health was close (r = 0.44; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The FLQM is a valid assessment of older peoples' life-satisfaction. The focus on domains of utmost individual importance seems to link the FLQM to self-rated health more closely than other ratings of global life-satisfaction. Further investigation into the qualitative information obtained by the FLQM is desirable in order to explain individual compositions of life-satisfaction and overall quality of life.
  Quality of Life Research 01/2012; · 2.30 Impact Factor