Calidad de vida en adultos mayores con enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva crónica

Introduction. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is one the most significant causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. It has psychosocial and pathophysiological effects that impact in a significant way to those who suffer from it. Objective. To evaluate quality of life from patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease through the SF-36 survey (Spanish version for Colombia (SF-36 v2)) made during an external medical appointment made in Floridablanca, Colombia in 2015. Methodology. Descriptive cross sectional study performed to 40 patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. These patients attended to external pulmonology medical appointments between February and November of 2015 and filled out the short form SF-36 v2 after signing informed consent. The database was created under license using QualityMetric Health Outcomes™ Scoring Software 4.0. Results. 40 patients, with an average age of 73 years (DE ± 8.4), participated in this study. When analyzing data, it was found that the physical functioning dimensions were values lower than 50. On the other hand, it was found that dimensions related to social functioning and emotional role had higher values and close to the ones reported by healthy population. Conclusions. Patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease showed a decrease in quality of life, in both of its dimensions: physical and mental, compared to healthy population’s reference values. It is ratified that this disease impacts all sub-scales of this construct, specially the ones related to the physical component. [Caceres-Rivera DI, Roa-Diaz ZM, Dominguez CL, Carreno-Robayo JH, Orozco-LeviMA. Quality of life in older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. MedUNAB. 2018;21(1):46-58. doi: 10.29375/01237047.2512].