[Measuring the quality of life in chronic obstructive respiratory diseases]

Health-related quality of life (HRQL) has been an important field of research for the last 10 years, the result being several questionnaires used to measure it. Measuring HRQL is important in order to evaluate the impact of the disease on patient life, but in the same time it can be used to measure the therapeutic effect of pharmacological or non-pharmacological therapies (i.e. oxygen therapy, respiratory rehabilitation, lung transplant), in placebo-controlled or comparative studies, together with more classical measures (i.e. FEV1). In this paper we present the main questionnaires used to quantify the quality of life, including generic questionnaires and questionnaires specific to chronic respiratory diseases. We describe ways of administration, domains, scores, minimally clinical important difference (MCID), characteristics of a good questionnaire and basic informations regarding the main standardised respiratory questionnaires: AQLQ, CRDQ and SGRQ. We are finally focusing on the Romanian version of SGRQ (SGRQ-RO).