Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) is among the most important causes of chronic disease in adulthood. COPD assessment test (CAT) and Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) are two health related quality of life questioners validated for application in patients with COPD. Our purpose was to evaluate the validity and reliability of the short and easily translated CAT questionnaire for COPD patients.
Material and Methods: Between December 2015 and November 2016, in a cross-sectional pilot study, COPD patients attending Masih daneshvari hospital were asked to complete the Farsi translation of the CAT questionnaire. The inclusion criteria were patient consent, having stable COPD, ability to respond to questions and lack of other pulmonary disease. The results of the questionnaire were compared with the SGRQ and frequency of visits to the emergency room. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated for the questionnaire.
Result: 77 patients participated in this study with mean age of 63 ± 12 years (27-88). Sixty six subjects (85.7%) were male and eleven (14.3%) were female. Mean CAT score was 24/87 ± 7 (range 1-40). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the CAT questionnaire was calculated to be 0.732. The correlation between CAT and SGRQ was significant (r=0.666, P=0.000). Correlation between CAT score and frequency of emergency visits and subjects’ being married were (r=0.627, P=0.017) and (r=0.58, P=0.024) respectively.
Conclusion: CAT questionnaire is well accepted by patients as is correlated well with SGRQ and patients’ psychometric status. Trial registration number: IRCT2016102927929N3.
Atefeh Fakharian, Shahram Kharabian Masouleh, Saba Karimzadeh, Tayebeh Farhadi