The Effect of Respiratory Functions, Quality of Life, Anxiety and Depression on The Number of Exacerbations in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients

Year 2025, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 56 - 61

Leyla Çevirme , Gündeniz Altıay

Abstract

Background: Diagnosis and treatment of comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) facilitates the control of the disease, and evaluation and improvement of quality of life is an important part of the follow-up of the disease. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of pulmonary function, quality of life, anxiety and depression on exacerbations in COPD.
Material and Methods: Between May 2007 and May 2008, 70 patients with COPD admitted to the pulmonary medicine outpatient clinic were included in the study and followed up for one year in terms of exacerbations. Quality of life questionnaires and anxiety and depression assessment scale were applied at the first interview.
Results: The mean age of the patients was 64.24±10.62 years. The male patients was 88.6% and there was a significant correlation between gender and number of exacerbations (p=0.045). No significant correlation was found between respiratory functions and depression and the number of exacerbations (p=0.368, p=0.134, respectively). There was a moderate positive correlation between exacerbations and anxiety (p<0.001, r=0.468). Patients with lower quality of life questionnaire scores had significantly more frequent exacerbations. The physical (p=0.004) and mental (vitality and mental role limitation) subscales of the Short form-36, the independence (p=0.011) and physical (p=0.031) subscales of the World Health Organization Quality of Life-103, and the symptom (p=0.005), effect (p=0.001) and total (p=0.004) subscales of the St. George's respiratory questionnaire were significantly associated with the number of exacerbations.
Conclusion: In conclusion, this study revealed that male gender, anxiety and poor quality of life are associated with number of exacerbations in COPD, a systemic, irreversible disease characterized by exacerbations. Based on this, better exacerbation control can be achieved by improving the quality of life and treating the accompanying psychological factors with the utilization of quality of life questionnaires and scales assessing psychological status in the follow-up of patients with COPD.

Keywords

copd, Anxiety, , depression

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