Relationship between Quality of Life and Disease Severity in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is currently the fourth cause of mortality worldwide. Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease experience periods of dyspnea and disability, which lead to a worsening of their quality of life. This study aimed to evaluate correlation between quality of life and disease severity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 40 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease referred to the hospitals affiliated to Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences were recruited. St. George's quality of life questionnaire was applied to collect data. Data was analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics in SPSS software version 16.

Results: The result revealed that the quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is low in all levels of disease. There was a significant relationship between total scores of the quality of life and its two dimensions (activity and symptom) with disease severity (p<0.05). Whereas no significant relations were observed between the impacting dimension and disease severity.

Conclusion: The quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deteriorates by increasing disease severity.