The relationship between demographic variables, disease severity and quality of life in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

The purpose of the present study was to determine the influence of demographic variables and disease characteristics on the quality of life scores and the distribution of the scores at different stages of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). One hundred patients with COPD participated in this cross-sectional study. Interview and the validated Persian version of the clinical COPD questionnaire (PCCQ) were used for data collection. The method of data collection for the study was interview with a demographic and validated Persian version of the clinical COPD questionnaire (PCCQ). Six percent of patients were revealed as mild COPD, 34 percent of patients as moderate COPD, 49 percent of patients as severe COPD and 11 percent of patients as very severe COPD. Significant differences were observed for total score and the component scores of the PCCQ among four stages of the disease. The age and length of the disease correlated significantly with the total PCCQ score (P<0.05). In order to compare between the CCQ total score and three domains of male and female groups, the results showed that women compared to men had lower quality of life in CCQ total score and functional areas (P<0/5). Distribution of the quality of life scores in patients with different stages of COPD patients showed that there is an overlap quality of life scores in the mild, moderate, severe and very severe stages of COPD patients. As a result, classifying the disease using spirometry cannot distinct patients with COPD according to impairments in their health status. In adittion, the age, sex and length of the disease are the main factors that may affect the quality of life.