Abstract
BACKGROUND: Respiratory insufficiency in COPD may present as hypoxic and/or hypercapnic respiratory failure treated with long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) and/or noninvasive ventilation (NIV) with LTOT. The Severe Respiratory Insufficiency Questionnaire (SRI) is a tool for the assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in subjects receiving NIV. However, it remains unclear whether the SRI is also capable of assessing and discriminating HRQOL in subjects receiving LTOT.
METHODS: Stable subjects with COPD receiving LTOT or NIV + LTOT (NIV) were prospectively recruited and completed the SRI, lung function tests, and blood gases. Confirmatory factor analysis for construct validity and internal consistency reliability were calculated.
RESULTS: One hundred fifty-five subjects were included (113 LTOT, 42 NIV). The Cronbach α coefficient of the 7 subscales ranged between 0.69 and 0.89 (LTOT) and between 0.79 and 0.93 (NIV), respectively. In both groups, confirmatory factor analysis revealed a one-factor model for the SRI summary scale; in 5 subscales, one- or 2-factor models could be established. Group differences in the SRI subsets were all P <.05 (except for physical functioning) with higher scores in subjects receiving NIV.
CONCLUSIONS: The SRI showed high reliability and validity in subjects with COPD receiving LTOT. Subjects receiving LTOT had lower SRI scores, indicating a poorer HRQOL compared with subjects with established NIV and LTOT.
- quality of life
- COPD
- oxygen inhalation therapy
- noninvasive ventilation
- chronic air flow obstruction
- severe respiratory insufficiency questionnaire (SRI)
Footnotes
- Correspondence: Wolfram Windisch MD, Department of Pneumology, Kliniken der Stadt Köln gGmbH, Ostmehrheimer Str. 200, 51109 Cologne, Germany.
This study was conducted at the University Hospital Freiburg, Clinic for Pneumology, Germany and Klinik Schillerhöhe, Center for Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery, Stuttgart-Gerlingen, Germany.
Supplementary material related to this paper is available at http://www.rcjournal.com.
Dr Walterspacher has received grants from Weinmann, SapioLife, and Anamed. Dr Windisch has received open research grants from Weinmann, Vivisol, VitalAire, Respironics, Breas Medical, Heinen&Löwenstein, and ResMed. The other authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest.
Dr Walterspacher presented a version of this work as a poster at the German Respiratory Society Congress, held March 29, 2014, in Bremen, Germany.
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