**2.3.3 Liver Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire (LDQOL) (Gralnek, 2000)**

LDQOL is a targeted instrument which incorporates the generic SF-36 as well as 12 diseasetargeted multi-item scales: liver disease-related symptoms, liver disease-related effects on activities of daily living, concentration, memory, sexual functioning, sexual problems, sleep, loneliness, hopelessness, quality of social interaction, health distress, and self-perceived stigma of liver disease. This questionnaire was designed for patients with liver disease, such as transplant candidates or liver transplant recipients. Gralnek et al., established the validity of this instrument for measuring QOL in patients with chronic liver disease in a multi-center study of patients referred for liver transplant evaluation. More recently a prospective validation of a short form version of the LDQOL including 36 targeted items representing nine domains in addition to the SF-36 has been published (Kanwal, 2008).

The LDQOL was published in 2000, but has only been introduced to clinics recently and some studies have been published (Dias Teixeira, 2005; Kim, 2007; Gotardo, 2008; Casanovas 2010;).
