Measures of functional status and quality of life in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

A variety of studies exist as to methods of assessing quality of life in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Neither the American Thoracic Society nor the European Consensus Statement for COPD recommend any specific quality-of-life or functional assessment measure as a gold standard. The present study identifies measures of COPD quality of life and functional status reported in selected literature in 1994-1997. A total of 37 measures were identified; of these eight were measures of general health, 10 were COPD/disease-specific questionnaires, and 19 were functional status indices. These measures provide valuable data, and further study is necessary to determine which measures should be integrated into standards of care.