title: Comparison of health-related quality of life measures in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aims of this study were: (1) to compare the discriminative ability of a disease-specific instrument, the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) to generic instruments (i.e., EQ-5D and SF-36); and (2), to evaluate the strength of associations among clinical and health-related quality of life (HRQL) measures in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed data collected from 120 COPD patients in a Veterans Affairs hospital. Patients self-completed two generic HRQL measures (EQ-5D and SF-36) and the disease-specific SGRQ. The ability of the summary scores of these HRQL measures to discriminate COPD disease severity based on Global Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stage was assessed using relative efficiency ratios (REs). Strength of correlation was used to further evaluate associations between clinical and HRQL measures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean total scores for PCS-36, EQ-VAS and SGRQ were significantly lower for the more severe stages of COPD (p < 0.05). Using SGRQ total score as reference, the summary scores of the generic measures (PCS-36, MCS-36, EQ index, and EQ-VAS) all had REs of <1. SGRQ exhibited a stronger correlation with clinical measures than the generic summary scores. For instance, SGRQ was moderately correlated with FEV1 (r = 0.43), while generic summary scores had trivial levels of correlation with FEV1 (r < 0.2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The SGRQ demonstrated greater ability to discriminate among different levels of severity stages of COPD than generic measures of health, suggestive that SGRQ may provide COPD studies with greater statistical power than EQ-5D and SF-36 summary scores to capture meaningful differences in clinical severity.
authors.affiliation: Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research and Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL 60612, USA. pickard1@uic.edu
authors.forename: A Simon
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Pickard
authors.forename: Yoojung
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Todd A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006787:Hospitals, Veterans; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires