Health-related quality of life of patients diagnosed with COPD in Extremadura, Spain: results from an observational study

BACKGROUND: COPD is a high prevalence chronic disease that involves large reductions of health-related quality of life (HRQL) of patients. This study aims to describe the HRQL of patients with COPD in Extremadura (Spain). METHODS: This is a cross-sectional observational study carried out using a representative sample of patients diagnosed with COPD in Extremadura. The inclusion criteria were patients of legal age, diagnosed with COPD at least 12 months prior to the visit, residing in Extremadura, with electronic medical records available for the 12 months prior to the visit and providing informed consent. The intervention aimed to elicit HRQL indicators obtained from two validated questionnaires: EuroQol - 5 Dimensions - 5 Levels (EQ-5D-5L), and St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire-COPD (SGRQ-C). The main outcome measures were general HRQL (utility and visual analogue scale) and specific quality of life of COPD patients (total score and three component scores: Symptoms, Activity, and Impacts). Stepwise multiple regression analysis was applied to evaluate the association of EQ-5D-5L and SGRQ-C with respect to clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of the patients. RESULTS: We recruited 386 patients (mean age 71.8 ± 10.3 years, 76.2% males). In the EQ-5D-5L, participants reported greater problems with respect to mobility (56.5%) and pain/discomfort (48.2%). The mean utility was 0.72 ± 0.31, and the SGRQ-C total score was 40.9 ± 25.0. The results of both questionnaires were associated with number of exacerbations in the last 12 months, level of COPD severity, gender, and education level of the patient (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results for both utility and total SGRQ-C score indicate that having suffered exacerbations in the last year, presenting a higher level of severity, being a woman, and having a low education level are related to worse HRQL in patients with COPD.