title: Use of an Australian quality of life tool in patients with COPD.
abstract: COPD is a leading chronic disease, increasing globally. Given this condition's irreversible and progressive nature, health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is increasingly a primary end-point in COPD management. We evaluated several HRQOL tools with a primary goals of (1) investigating how the generic Assessment Quality of Life (AQOL) functions compared to the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF36) and the St. Georges Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ); and (2) considering the extent to which clinical disease severity, as measured by the BODE index, predicts variation in HRQOL reports.
  
  
  METHODS
  134 consecutive patients entering a pulmonary rehabilitation program were recruited. Participants completed two generic measures of HRQOL (SF36 and AQOL) and one disease specific measure (SGRQ). The clinical severity of COPD was assessed using a composite global COPD severity score, BODE.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant associations were demonstrated between AQOL and both the SF36 (r = .68) and SGRQ (r = -.60). BODE significantly predicted AQOL scores (R = -.31); mMRC (R = -.36) and 6MWD (R = .39) were stronger contributors to these predictions than were FEV(1) or BMI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study establishes convergent validity between AQOL, and the SF36 and SGRQ in patients with COPD. For future studies wishing to examine HRQOL from a generic perspective, we have shown that during cross-sectional analyses AQOL performs similarly to the SF36. In addition we identified that the clinical severity of COPD, as assessed by BODE, significantly influences reports of quality of life made using AQOL. The components of BODE that most strongly contributed to predicting HRQOL were dsypnea and exercise tolerance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Paddison
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cafarella
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Frith
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires