Measuring functional status of chronic coronary patients. Reliability, validity and responsiveness to clinical change of the reduced version of the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI).
OBJECTIVE
Health-related quality of life assessment may be useful for understanding the variability in functioning of patients with a similar level of clinical impairment. We assessed the reliability, validity and responsiveness to clinical change of a reduced version of the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) in chronic coronary patients.


RESULTS
The reduced version of the DASI, a measure of self-reported functional capacity, was administered twice to two groups of patients: 46 stable coronary heart disease outpatients were tested and re-tested 2 weeks after their initial visit; and 44 patients undergoing elective angioplasty for angina pectoris were evaluated the day before and one month after the procedure. The Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) functional grade was assessed in all patients, and a treadmill exercise test was performed sequentially (before and after the procedure) in angioplasty patients. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients for reduced DASI scores were high (between 0.81 and 0.89). Correlations of the reduced DASI scores with CCS grade and exercise test duration were moderately high (r = -0.51 and r = 0.45, respectively). Improvement after angioplasty as assessed by the reduced DASI scores was important (effect size = 0.75, P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The reduced DASI is reliable, valid and responsive to clinical changes. Health-related quality of life measures may be useful in monitoring coronary patients.
Alonso
J
J
Health Services Research Unit, Institut Municipal d'Investigació Mèdica (IMIM), Barcelona, Spain.
Permanyer-Miralda
G
G
Cascant
P
P
Brotons
C
C
Prieto
L
L
Soler-Soler
J
J
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000628:therapy; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires