Analysis on the characteristics and applicability of quality of life assessment tools for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis / 中国中西医结合急救杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the characteristics and applicability of the quality of life (QOL) evaluation scale for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Methods The IPF-QOL evaluation scales at home and abroad were retrieved and analyzed comprehensively and deeply in terms of fields, number of items, scoring methods, applicability and correlation. Results In the literature area of IPF-QOL evaluation scale, the contents mainly included symptoms,daily activity ability, psychological activity, social activity, economic status, curative effect, etc, and the IPF health-related quality of life, dyspnea, cough and other symptoms were evaluated; the number of related items was between 5-74, and Likert 5 grade scoring method was mostly adopted,with scoring results of 0-100 points; the classical scoring theory such as reliability, validity, responsiveness, feasibility, etc were mainly used to analyze the scale assessment, lacking the application of modern measurement theory; mostly, the studies were concentrated in foreign countries,and relatively few in China, especially lack of the development of the evaluation scale for the combination of disease and symptoms based on Chinese culture. Conclusion The development of IPF-QOL evaluation scale has become a research hotspot, and in clinical application, it is necessary to base on the different characteristics of the scale to improve the accuracy of the evaluation results; in the scale development process, the standardization, comprehensiveness of assessment, and the rationality of scoring results should be strengthened in order to obtain an effective tool which can be provided and suitable for IPF-QOL evaluation.