Chest
Original ResearchDoes Quality of Life of COPD Patients as Measured by the Generic EuroQol Five-Dimension Questionnaire Differentiate Between COPD Severity Stages?
Section snippets
Setting and Patients
This study used data from a subset of 1,235 patients from 13 countries who completed the EQ-5D at baseline of the UPLIFT trial.18 Because the EQ-5D was added via protocol amendment more than midway through the recruitment period, only the last 1,235 patients of those countries with significant enrollment remaining could be included in this study. Patients were enrolled sequentially from the time of ethics committee approval of the protocol amendment in each particular country until the
Results
Table 1 shows the characteristics of the 1,235 patients included in the study. The mean duration of COPD was approximately 10 years. Thirty-four percent were active smokers. The mean smoking history was approximately 48 pack-years. Most patients (85.7%) had comorbidity. The median number of concomitant diagnoses per patient was three. Patients most frequently experienced vascular disorders (48%), musculoskeletal disorders (34%), metabolic disorders (32%), GI disorders (26%), and cardiac
Discussion and Conclusion
This study has demonstrated that the GOLD staging of COPD severity corresponds to significant differences in generic health-related quality of life, as assessed by the EQ-5D VAS and utility scores. Importantly, these differences were maintained after correction for other variables that were known to or were expected to affect quality of life, especially comorbidity. This finding demonstrates that GOLD staging of COPD severity corresponds not only to differences in disease-specific quality of
Acknowledgment
We thank our Institute for Medical Technology Assessment colleague Dr. Leida Lamers, who is a member of the EuroQol group, for suggestions on the EQ-5D analyses. We also would like to thank those investigators participating in UPLIFT trial who implemented the administration of the EQ-5D, and all patients who completed the questionnaire. We acknowledge Dominique Julien from Boehringer Ingelheim for providing data management support.
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This study was financially supported by Boehringer Ingelheim International and Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals.
Drs. Rutten-van Mölken and Oostenbrink were reimbursed by Boehringer Ingelheim for consultancy, and for delivering lectures and courses. They have no financial interest in the EQ-5D. Dr. Tashkin is a recipient of research grants from and has been a consultant for Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (www.chestjournal.org/misc/reprints.shtml).