Chest
Clinical InvestigationsDIFFUSE LUNG DISEASEAssessment of Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients With Interstitial Lung Disease
Section snippets
Patients
All patients with documented interstitial lung disease referred to or followed by the University of Washington Chest Clinic from September 1997 through July 1998 were identified by screening clinic appointment books and were asked to participate if they met entry criteria. Interstitial lung disease was defined by the clinical presentation of otherwise unexplained dyspnea in conjunction with (1) linear or reticulonodular interstitial infiltrates on chest radiograph or CT scan, and (2)
Clinical Characteristics
We administered quality-of-life questionnaires to 50 patients with interstitial lung disease. The clinical characteristics of this group are described in Table 1. The median age of the patients was 60.5 years with a range from 29 to 81 years. The older age and male predominance of the study population reflect the epidemiologic features of its largest group, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
The majority of patients were currently taking or had been previously taking steroids and other
Discussion
Health-related quality of life in interstitial lung disease is a vital concern to both patients and their physicians. Patients experience decreased quality of life because of symptoms and treatment side effects as well as the progressive nature of the respiratory impairment and functional limitation caused by the disease. Physicians should be particularly concerned about quality-of-life issues with these diseases because medications currently available are of marginal effectiveness,
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Supported in part by the Respiratory Research Training grant, No. 5 T32HL07287. Additional project support was provided by the Firland Sheltered Workshop Foundation, a nonprofit agency with a mission ofsupport for projects relating to care of individuals with tuberculosisand other chronic respiratory problems.