The health-related quality of life of asthmatic patients according to the illness severity

Aim: To evaluate the differences in the Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of Asthmatic patients according to the illness severity using the Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), an specific instrument for respiratory diseases. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive and observational study with 103 outpatients with Asthma (65 women and 38 men) with mean age of 58.48 years (SD 18.30 years) recruited from the Respiratory Service of the University Hospital of Salamanca, Spain from January to July 2010. Socio-demographic and spirometric data (American Thoracic Society criteria) were collected. The HRQoL was evaluated by the SGRQ. Descriptive analysis, one-way analysis of variance and the t-student test were applied using SPSS. Results: It was found that 30.1% had Intermittent (I), 35% had Mild Persistent (MP), 25.2% had Moderate Persistent (MOP) and 9.7% had Severe Persistent (SP) asthma according to the Global Initiative Asthma. The mean of the domains were: Symptoms 39.93 scores (SD 21.83 scores), Activity 43.50 scores (SD 28.10 scores), Impact 24.61 scores (SD 17.81 scores) and the Total 32.84 scores (SD 19.07 scores). There were significant differences (ANOVA) between the groups of severity and the forced expiratory volume in 1s (FEV1), the Vital Capacity (VC) and all domains and the Total SGRQ. There were no signification in the FEV1 and the VC between I and MP groups (t-student tests). Also there was no signification between the three contrasts between the MP, MOP and MS groups in all domains and in the total SGRQ. Conclusions: The HRQoL is related to the asthma severity in this studied sample due to higher differences between the Intermittent Asthma and the other groups.