Evaluation on Quality of Life of Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Analysis of Its Influencing Factors

27 March 2009 2 views No Comment

Abstract:

ObjectiveChronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is an important disease whose global prevalence rate and mortality are high, and there are 10 million people dead for COPD and 50 to 100 million people induced to deformity in China every year because of it. COPD can affect the quality of life of patients due to decompensation and decrease in activity resistance caused by lung function injury. Therefore, quality of life is an effective method to evaluate the health level of patients with COPD comprehensively, which can reflect individual\’s physical function, psychological status, social life and so on. The aims of the study were find out the quality of life of patients with COPD, investigate its influencing factors and offer evidence for improving it. We used St George\’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) to investigate the quality of life of 126 patients with COPD and its influencing factors.Materials and MethodsCluster sampling was used to select a hospital from third class first rank hospitals of Shenyang, and subjects were collect from stable outpatients with COPD from Fengtian Affiliated Hospital of Shenyang Medical College between September 2006 and September 2007. Questionnaires were used to complete the survey, which were divided into two parts, one is the basic characteristic of patients and the probable influencing factors of quality of life of patients, the other is St George\’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), both of which were completed by patients in the day of investigation. Weight average method was used to calculate the SGRQ, three subscales of which were calculated separately. Final scores were educed after disposal, and the range was 0～100 with a lower score representing the better health status of patients with COPD. Multiple correlation analysis was made between three scores of SGRQ subscales, total score, FEV_1% and FEV_1/FVC to confirm the reliability of SGRQ. SPSS 13.0 software was used for statistic analysis. Normal distribution resources were represented as (x|-)±s, and t test was used for two-sample comparison; ANOVA was used for multi-sample comparison, and the multiple comparison was using LSD-t test; Pearson X~2 or Fisher exact probabilities was used for testing categorical data; Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis were used for analyzing influencing factors of quality of life.ResultsThe total score of SGRQ and the three scores of subscales were all normal distribution, among which the score of activity limitation was the highest and was most severely affected by COPD. The results of Pearson correlation analysis indicated that the correlations between total score of SGRQ and the three scores of subscales were all significantly correlated. There were no significant statistical differences between the scores in different gender, passive smoking, cooking mode, aeration mode in the kitchen or house style, while there were significant statistical differences between the scores in different level of education, family income monthly, exercise rate, smoking, cooking frequency, severity degree of disease and classification of BMI.DiscussionThe results of the investigation indicated that the correlations between the total score of SGRQ and the three scores of subscales (respiration symptom, activity limitation and disease influence) were very good, which represented a good consistency in evaluation on symptoms, activities, psychological status of patients using SGRQ and the quality of life of patients. The quality of life of patients with COPD was generally low, especially for activity limitation, and then was damage in social function and psychological obstacles caused by pulmonary disease. There were significant positive correlations between every parts of quality of life and the duration of disease, and there were significant negative correlations between every parts of quality of life and FEV_1% and BMI, all of which were consisted with results of researches before. Most of patients with COPD have long duration of disease, and deterioration in physical health emerged in many patients with the progress of the disease. Frequent acute paroxysm brought to reconstruct of trachea and lung vascular, and the inreversible damage of pathology and physiology occurred with the aggravating clinic symptoms, reduction of lung function and loss of labor ability, even can\’t manage daily life living which affected patients\’ social life directly. Psychological obstacles such as fears of social intercourse due to long time staying at home and decrease in social activities would affect quality of life gradually.Conclusions1. Quality of life of patients with COPD is generally low.2. Major influencing factors of patient\’s quality of life are severity degree of disease, family income monthly, level of education, nutritional status, smoking, exercise rate and so on.3. Quality of life of patients would be improved by altering unhealthy living habits and making integrative exercise for recovery.