HRQOL- Health-Related Quality of Life.

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Health-Related Quality of Life

The International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps, published by the World Health Organization, defines "impairment" as:

Any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function

"Disability" is defined as:

Any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.

"Handicap" is defined as:

A disadvantage for a given individual, resulting from impairment or a disability, that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role that is normal (depending on age, sex, social, and cultural factors) for that individual.

Each of these definitions can describe the reduction in quality of life patients with COPD suffer, as the disease progresses from mild to severe.

HRQOL refers to 3 aspects: physical, psychological, and social. Each of these is unique to the individual. It can be measured by an objective assessment of functioning or health status and the patient’s subjective perceptions of his or her optimal health.

These 3 aspects can be further broken down into factors most important to patients:

activities of daily living
social functioning (eg, relationships, work)
psychological functioning (eg, depression)
ability to participate in activities with enjoyment (eg, recreation, hobbies)

Causes of Reduced HRQOL Causes of Reduced Health-Related Quality of Life. It has been hypothesized that impairment from COPD is a 2‑fold process, involving both systemic (whole body) impairment and impairment of the respiratory organ itself.
Factors Influencing HRQOL Factors that Influence Health-Related Quality of Life. A number of studies have attempted to determine the factors that influence a patient's HRQOL. Many of the findings disagree with each other, possibly because of the many different measurement instruments used.
Dyspnea & HRQOL Dyspnea and Health-Related Quality of Life. The most debilitating symptom of COPD is dyspnea, the awareness of breathlessness or shortness of breath. Dyspnea increases as the disease progresses, ultimately severely compromising a patient's HRQOL.
HRQOL Assessment Tools Health-Related Quality of Life Assessment Tools. While HRQOL has been gaining more attention in recent years, many physicians in clinical practice do not assess their patients' HRQOL.
Role of HRQOL in Therapy Role of Health-Related Quality of Life in Therapy. The aims of management of COPD include the improvement of symptoms. The traditional view was to rely solely on pulmonary lung function tests to quantify severity and assess response to therapy.

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