Health-Related Quality of Life in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Health-related quality of life is a clinical outcome that is unique to each individual. It can be assessed subjectively by a clinician, but cannot be measured in a standardised manner. In contrast, health status which is a marker of impaired health-related quality of life, is measureable and such measurements are now performed routinely in clinical trials to estimate the size of treatment benefit. Outside the setting of clinical trials, health status questionnaires have shed important insights into a number of areas of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, particularly in terms of symptomatic progression over time, which appears to be confined largely to effects on physical activity and psycho-social areas of health-related quality of life, rather than specific respiratory symptoms.
Development of short simple instruments has brought health status measurement into routine practice where it may be particularly useful for baseline assessment, monitoring trends, and assessment of recovery after acute events such as exacerbations or hospitalisation.