Effect of COPD on Health-Related Quality of Life; Results from the BOLD Study in Iran

BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been the third leading cause of morbidity and the sixth leading cause of mortality in 2020. This chronic disease usually impairs health status and is an independent predictor of morbidity and mortality. The main objective of this study was to assess health-Related quality of life (HRQL) in a large sample of participants with and without COPD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was based on the data obtained from the population-based BOLD study in Iran. The sampling frame in this study included the whole population of 31 provinces of Iran. Participants were recruited using a stratified cluster sampling strategy with proportional allocations within strata. All the participants were requested to fill the Short Form 12 (SF-12) Health Survey Questionnaire, an abbreviated version of the SF-36. RESULTS: A total of 1062 subjects, including 479 (45%) males and 583 (54.7%) females, were enrolled in the study. The mean age of the participants was 40±15.04 years. The overall COPD prevalence based on the post-bronchodilator spirometry functional criteria was 5.0%. The mean PCS- 12 and MCS- 12 for all the subjects were 66.61±22.72 and 60.79±23.52, respectively. The mean scores of PCS and MCS were significantly lower in patients with COPD than those without COPD (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study demonstrated that COPD, female gender, and an age above 40 years influenced HRQL, especially the physical dimension, as shown by the SF-12 instrument.