Abstract
This review article presents views on the quality of life, its definition and evaluation methods using questionnaires. Quality of life related to health (Health Related Quality of Life - HRQoL) is an important tool in evaluating the effectiveness of treatment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The overview is shown, with the HRQoL related more or less, and how to determine its individual "domain" using a respiratory questionnaire, according to St. George's Hospital in London (SGRQ).
Quality of life in patients with COPD is dependent on many factors (symptoms, weight, age, and exacerbation of pharmacological and non-pharmacological). In the next part of the article summarizes the results of studies demonstrating the possibility to improve HRQoL using various classes of drugs.
One can get acquainted with a number of studies showing that in this area we have the most effective long-term data on anticholinergics tiotropium, which can be regarded as a comparator new drugs or the "gold standard" treatment of patients with COPD. Finally the results and non-pharmacological influence HRQoL of patients with this disease.