Validity of a quality of well-being scale as an outcome measure in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

This paper evaluates the validity of the Quality of Well-being Scale (QWB) as an outcome measure for research on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The Quality of Well-being Scale was originally designed for use as a general health outcome measure. One criticism of this approach has been that it may not be valid in studies limited to a specific disease or condition. We report correlations between the QWB and a variety of other outcome measures obtained in an experimental trial evaluating the benefits of behavioral programs for COPD patients. The data from the trial suggest that the QWB is substantially correlated with both performance and physiological variables relevant to the health status of COPD patients. An advantage of the QWB is that it can be transformed into well-year units for cost-effectiveness studies. It is concluded that the QWB has many advantages as an outcome measure for specific disease groups.