[Measurement of the quality of life or general health status in chronic obstructive lung diseases].

During recent years, in assessment of the therapeutic effect of medicinal treatment, measurement of the general condition of health or quality of life has been extensively employed. This holds true particularly in patients with chronic disease, including patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In this patient category, several controlled investigations have been carried out in which one or more questionnaires concerning general health have been employed. The questionnaires employed and reviewed are the Sickness impact profile (SIP), Mcmaster's chronic respiratory disease questionnaire (CRQ), Quality of well-being scale (QWB), General health questionnaire (GHQ), Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI) and Profile of mood states (POMS). The questionnaires contain questions regarding many aspects of the existence of the patients and have been tested to varying extents for reproducibility, sensitivity and validity. No patent method exists for measurement of quality of life. It is therefore important for interpretation of investigations that the aspects of quality of life which have been measured are clearly defined and that the questionnaire method employed is quoted.