Performance of valued life activities reflected asthma-specific quality of life more than general physical function.
OBJECTIVE
We examined the prevalence of disability in valued life activities (VLAs) among a group of adults with asthma and the impact of general physical function and performance of VLAs on asthma-specific quality of life (QOL).


METHODS
Interview data collected from two waves of a longitudinal cohort study were used to examine the prevalence of disability in VLAs, the cross-sectional association of general function and performance of VLAs with QOL, and the longitudinal association of changes in general function and changes in performance of VLAs with changes in QOL. General function was assessed with the SF-12; VLAs were assessed with a newly developed measure.


RESULTS
A substantial portion of subjects reported disability in VLAs. VLA function was a stronger predictor of QOL than general physical function in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
Performance of VLAs is more closely tied to asthma-specific QOL than is general physical function.
Katz
Patricia P
PP
Department of Medicine, University of California-San Francisco, 350 Parnassus Ave., Suite 609, San Francisco, CA 94143-0924, USA. pkatz@itsa.ucsf.edu
Yelin
Edward H
EH
Eisner
Mark D
MD
Earnest
Gillian
G
Blanc
Paul D
PD
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index