PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - K Gruffydd-Jones
TI  - Quality-of-life measures in asthma--do they matter to the GP?
DP  - 1997 Jun 01
TA  - British Journal of General Practice
PG  - 392--394
VI  - 47
IP  - 419
4099  - http://bjgp.org/content/47/419/392.short
4100  - http://bjgp.org/content/47/419/392.full
SO  - Br J Gen Pract1997 Jun 01; 47
AB  - Asthma is a condition which incurs a great cost to the National Health Service, to the economy and above all to the patient in terms of loss of quality of life. Treatments for asthma need to be evaluated for their cost-effectiveness. Traditional outcome measures, such as airflow measurements have their limitations, especially in mild to moderate asthma. Quality-of-life measurements represent the impact of asthma on the everyday lives of asthmatics across the whole disease spectrum. Disease specific quality-of-life questionnaires, such as the Asthma Quality-of-Life Questionnaire (AQLQ), provide reliable instruments in reflecting disease severity, but also in detecting changes in quality of life produced by different asthma treatments. Quality-of-life measures are becoming increasingly important and are end-points of therapeutic asthma trials in primary care, but should be used in conjunction with more surrogate markers of asthma severity such as peak flow.