Abstract
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is one of the most common forms of interstitial lung disease presenting in persons 50 years and older. Through a comprehensive review of available studies, we aimed to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of people living with IPF and the instruments used in this assessment.
Searches were conducted up to May, 2020. Quality appraisal and data extraction were performed using pre-designed forms. Narrative synthesis approach was used to report results of the systematic review and a random effects model was used for the meta-analysis. A leave-one-out sensitivity analysis was performed, and a trim and fill method was used to assess publication bias.
The review included 134 studies. The most used instruments to measure HRQoL were St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), Short Form 36 (SF36) and EuroQoL (EQ5D). Standardised mean scores (95% confidence interval) for these instruments were as follows: SGRQ total score: 44.72 (42.21–47.22); SF36 physical component score (PCS): 37.00 (34.74–39.26) SF36 mental component score (MCS): 50.18 (48.41–51.95); King's Brief Interstitial Lung Disease questionnaire total score: 58.38 (55.26–61.51); and EQ5D utility: 0.73 (0.68–0.79). Analysis of standardised means for both SGRQ and SF36 demonstrated worse scores in physical health domains as compared to mental health domains.
This systematic review confirms that IPF negatively affected HRQoL, mostly impacting the physical health domains. This study also demonstrated that a diverse number of instruments are used to evaluate HRQoL. In view of this diversity, a standardised approach to measurement of HRQoL for IPF is important to ensure that comparisons made are reliable.
Abstract
This study established that a wide variety of instruments are used to evaluate HRQoL in IPF and suggests that to improve comparability across studies, a standardised approach to the measurement of HRQoL is important https://bit.ly/2XJSApz
Footnotes
Provenance: Submitted article, peer reviewed
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Author contributions: I.A. Cox designed the study, developed the search strategies, conducted the screening of the titles, abstracts and full texts, interpreted results and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. N. Borchers Arriagada contributed to the design and performance of the statistical analysis and manuscript writing. B. de Graaff contributed to the study design and search strategies, conducted the screening of the titles, abstracts and full texts, and contributed to the manuscript writing. H. Walters contributed to study design, resolution of discrepancies and manuscript writing. S. Lartey performed the data audit and contributed to manuscript writing. T.J. Corte contributed to manuscript writing. I. Glaspole contributed to the manuscript writing. A.J. Palmer contributed to conceptualisation and study design, development of search strategies and manuscript writing. All authors approved of the final version of the report.
Data availability: The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Conflict of interest: I.A. Cox reports grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council, during the conduct of the study.
Conflict of interest: N. Borchers Arriagada has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: B. de Graaff has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: T.J. Corte reports grants and personal fees from Roche and BMS; grants, personal fees, non-financial support and other from Boehringer Ingelheim; grants from Actelion, Bayer, Galapagos and Biogen; personal fees from AstraZeneca; and other from Promedior, outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: I. Glaspole reports personal fees from Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: S. Lartey has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: H. Walters has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: A.J. Palmer reports grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council, during the conduct of the study.
Support statement: Funding for this study came from the Centre of Research Excellence in Pulmonary Fibrosis (funded by the National Health & Medical Research Council grant 1116371 and supported by Foundation partner Boehringer Ingelheim and Program partners Roche and Galapagos). Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
- Received May 20, 2020.
- Accepted June 3, 2020.
- Copyright ©ERS 2020.
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