The purpose of this study was to compare perceptual differences between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and their non-COPD spouses regarding the patients' health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Sixty-seven community-dwelling COPD patients and their non-COPD spouses participated. Participants completed the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) and the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ). On both questionnaires, spouses' perceptions of patients' HRQOL were lower than those of the patients themselves. At the bivariate level, statistically significant differences were found on the SIP in the physical domain and on the SGRQ in the psychosocial domain. At the multivariate level, the age and gender of both the patients and spouses accounted for 22% of score differences in the psychosocial domain of HRQOL for the SGRQ. Discordance was greatest among the oldest couples with female non-COPD spouses. Domain-specific HRQOL differences provide direction for supportive nursing interventions to enhance coping among COPD couples.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Albert, S. M. (1997). Assessing health-related quality of life in chronic care populations. Journal of Mental Health & Aging, 3, 101-118.
2.
Allen, S. M. (1994). Gender differences in spousal caregiving and unmet need for care. Journal of Gerontology, 49, S187-S195.
3.
Barusch, A. S., & Spaid, W. M. (1989). Gender differences in caregiving: Why do wives report greater burden? The Gerontologist, 29, 667-675.
4.
Bergner, M., Bobbitt, R. A., Carter, W. B., & Gilson, B. S. (1981). The sickness impact profile: Development and final revision of a health status measure. Medical Care, 19, 787-785.
5.
Bowling, A. (1994). Measuring illness: A review of disease specific quality of life measurement scales. Philadelphia: Open University Press.
6.
Bowling, A. (1995). What things are important in people's lives? A survey of the public's judgements to inform scales of health related quality of life. Social Science and Medicine, 41, 1447-1462.
7.
Clipp, E. C., & George, L. K. (1991). Patients with cancer and their spouse caregivers—Perceptions of the illness experience. Cancer, 69, 1074-1079.
8.
Cossette, S., & Levesque, L. (1993). Caregiving tasks as predictors of mental health of wife caregivers of men with chronic obstructive lung disease. Research in Nursing and Health, 16, 251-263.
9.
Cowan, M. J., Young-Graham, K., & Cochrane, B. L. (1992). Comparison of a theory of quality of life between myocardial infarction and malignant melanoma: A pilot study. Progress in Cardiovascular Nursing, 7, 18-28.
10.
Dorfman, L. T. (1995). Health conditions and perceived quality of life in retirement. Health and Social Work, 20, 193-198.
11.
Ebersole, P., & Hess, P. (1990). Primary and secondary relationship networks. In L. L. Duncan (Ed.), Towards healthy aging—Human needs and nursing response (3rd ed., pp. 450-486). Toronto, Canada: Mosby.
12.
Farquhar, M. (1995). Elderly people's definitions of quality of life. Social Science and Medicine, 41, 1439-1446.
13.
Harper, R., Brazier, J. E., Waterhouse, J. C., Walters, S. J., Jones, N. M. B., & Howard, P. (1997). Comparison of outcome measures for patients with COPD in an outpatient setting. Thorax, 52, 879-887.
14.
Hatchett, L., Friend, R., Symister, P., & Wadhwa, N. (1997). Interpersonal expectations, social support, and adjustment to chronic illness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 560-573.
15.
Health Canada. (1997). Fact sheet: Major causes of death in Canada, 1993-1995. Chronic Diseases in Canada, 18(2), 91-92.
16.
Jaloweic, A. (1990). Issues in using multiple measures of quality of life. Seminars in Oncological Nursing, 6, 271-277.
17.
Jones, P. W. (1991). Quality of life measurements for patients with diseases of the airways. Thorax, 46, 676-682.
18.
Jones, P. W. (1992). The St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire. London: St. George's Medical School.
19.
Jones, P. W. (1995). Issues concerning health related quality of life. Chest, 107, 187S-193S.
20.
Lawrence, R. H. (1995). The structure of physical health status—Comparing proxy and self-respondents. Journal of Aging and Health, 7, 74-98.
21.
Lazarus, R., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.
22.
Leidy, N., & Traver, G. A. (1996). Adjustment and social behavior in older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: The family's perspective. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 23, 252-259.
23.
Low, G. (2000). Quality of life perceptions among older adult couples living with COPD. Unpublished master's thesis, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.
24.
Miller, B. F., & Keane, C. B. (1987). Encyclopedia and dictionary of medicine, nursing, and allied health (4th ed.). Toronto, Canada: W. B. Saunders.
25.
Ostbye, T., Tyas, S., McDowell, I., & Koval, J. (1997). Reported agreement of activities of daily living between elderly subjects with or without dementia and their caregivers. Age and Ageing, 26, 99-106.
26.
Prigatano, G. P., Wright, E. C., Wright, M. P. H., & Levin, D. (1984). Quality of life and its predictors in patients with mild hypoxemia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Archives of Internal Medicine, 144, 1613-1619.
27.
Ross, M. M. (1991). Spousal caregiving in later life: An objective and subjective career. Health Care for Women International, 12, 123-135.
28.
Sexton, D. L., & Munro, B. H. (1985). Impact of a husband's chronic illness (COPD) on spouse's life. Research in Nursing and Health, 11, 83-90.
29.
Sheckleton, M. E. (1987). Coping with chronic respiratory difficulty. Nursing Clinics of North America, 22, 569-580.
30.
Sneeuw, K. C. A., Aaronson, N. K., deHaan, R. J., & Limburg, M. (1997). Assessing quality of life after stroke: The value and limitations of proxy ratings. Stroke, 28, 1541-1549.
31.
Sneeuw, K. C. A., Aaronson, N. K., Sprangers, M. A. G., Detmar, S. B., Wever, L. D. V., & Schornagel, J. H. (1997). Value of caregiver ratings in evaluating quality of life of patients with cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 15, 1206-1217.
32.
Suls, J., Green, P., Rose, G., Lounsbury, P., & Gordon, E. (1997). Hiding worries from one's spouse: Associations between coping via protective buffering and distress in male post-myocardial infarction patients and their wives. Journal of Behavioral Health, 20, 333-349.
33.
Zacharias, D. R., Gilg, C. A., & Foxall, M. J. (1994). Quality of life and coping in patients with gynecological cancer and their spouses. Oncological Nursing Forum, 21, 1699-1706.
