Health related quality of life in COPD patients: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive lung disease that causes breathlessness (initially with exertion) and predisposes to exacerbations and serious illness. COPD is not curable, improvement of quality of life of such patients is thus of importance. The aims and objective of the study was to assess health related quality of life and its determinants in patients with COPD.Methods: Cases were first identified from the medical records of Department of RHTC, Mandur. Eligible cases were then interviewed by home visits. Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL) of participants was assessed using St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ). ANOVA, student’s t test and correlation were used to interpret the data.Results: This study shows an impaired quality of life in COPD patients. Quality of life was impaired in all the domains. However, activity domain was the most affected while impact domain was least affected. Age, sex, smoking, BMI, socioeconomic status, occupation did not impact quality of life in significant manner.Conclusions: This study shows an impaired quality of life in COPD patients. As COPD is slowly progressing disease with no specific cure, we should focus more on treatable aspects of quality of life.