Qualitative Health-Related Quality of Life and Natural Language Processing: Characteristics, Implications, and Challenges

• Published in: Healthcare (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 19; p. 2008
• Main Authors: Lázaro, Esther, Moscardó, Vanessa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 08-10-2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Algorithms; Artificial intelligence; Chronic illnesses; Language; Large language models; Machine learning; Natural language processing; Pathology; Patients; Perceptions; Qualitative research; Quality of life; Verbal communication; health-related quality of life; large language models; natural language processing; quality of life
• ISSN: 2227-9032; 2227-9032
• DOI: 10.3390/healthcare12192008

This article focuses on describing the main characteristics of the application of NLP in the qualitative assessment of quality of life, as well as its implications and challenges.
The qualitative methodology allows analysing patient comments in unstructured free text and obtaining valuable information through manual analysis of these data. However, large amounts of data are a healthcare challenge since it would require a high number of staff and time resources that are not available in most healthcare organizations.
One potential solution to mitigate the resource constraints of qualitative analysis is the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence, specifically methodologies based on natural language processing.