The evaluation on the effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) phenotypes on the life quality

This paper is a descriptive and cross sectional research that has been done with the aim of evaluating the effects of COPD phenotypes on the life quality. The COPD patients over the age of 40 having applied to the Pulmonology Polyclinic of University Hospital by fulfilling the criteria to be involved in the research (the patients haven't been suffered exacerbations at least four weeks, whose the rate of Forced Expiratory Volume/Forced Vital Capacity (FEV1 /FVC) <70 % at the first second and the patients at the stable period) comprise the target population of the study and the patients who are volunteered to participate in this research comprises the sample of the study. The research data is collected by face-to-face contact. The date is evaluated with the descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis Test, chi-square test, two–staged clustering analysis and ordinal logistic regression analyses. Two phenotypes are defined after the patients have been evaluated with 13 parameters. It has been no differences detected in phenotypes in terms of gender, occupation status and the type of additional disease. However, in terms of age (MWU=-2,75), the duration of disease (month) (MWU=-3,49), the percentage of FEV1 (MWU=-8,69), smoking history (package–year) (x2=6,15), the phase of FEV1 (x2=67,00), the number of exacerbations (x2=125,23), BMI (x2=12,66) and the presence of additional disease (x2=4,31), the significant differences have been detected statistically (p < 0.05). The patients in phenotype 1 cluster have been determined that they are at a younger age, their duration of disease is shorter and the percentage of FEV1 is higher compared to the patients in phenotype 2 cluster. It has been confirmed that the phenotype 1 cluster consists of COPD patients who are at slightly and moderate phase while the phenotype 2 cluster consists of COPD patients who are at advanced and extra-advanced phase and these patients in this cluster have more frequent number of exacerbations, more additional disease, have smoked much longer (package–year) and they are weak. It has also been concluded that the average score of life quality in phenotype 2 cluster is higher (deterioration) than the other cluster. Consequently, the life quality in COPD phenotypes in which the patients have smoked for a long time, have an additional disease and high number of exacerbations and the ones who are weak is significantly impaired. Key Words: COPD, Phenotype, The quality of life, Exacerbation