4. Design of the study
In this prospective cohort study we used the EES-Q as the HRQoL
instrument. This is a validated instrument for assessing the HRQoL in
all three health domains (physical, psychological and social) during the
surgery period.10, 11 A total of 30 items (10 per
domain) describe activities or complaints with a 5-point Likert response
scale ranging from not at all (1), (mildly (2), moderately (3), severely
(4)) to very severely (5) to indicate the degree of inconvenience. Note
that higher scores correspond with lower HRQoL.