Adult cystic fibrosis patients’ quality of life: facts and hypotheses

Abstract

With spectacular progress of cystic fibrosis (CF) treatment, a majority of patients come of age and reach adulthood, so the problem has arisen of their social and psychological adaptation to adult community life.
The present study monitors the quality of life (QL) of adult CF patients, compares the obtained results with respective indices of a control group and bronchial asthma (BA) patients, and evaluates the correlation between CF patients' QL and other clinical indices.
Involved in the study were 16 CF patients, five of which were receiving intravenous antibacterial treatment on an outpatient arrangement; 31 BA patients and 31 respondents of the control group. QL was evaluated on a Russian-language version of the questionnaire SF36.
The study revealed a significant QL reduction in the CF group on the following entries: physical activity (PA) (p<0.05), general health (GH) (p<0.001), vitality (V) (p<0.05), and mental health (p<0.001). Female patients’ QL was graphically below male in V (p<0.05). Social activity (SA) and mental health were notably higher (p<0.05) with CF outpatients receiving intravenous antibacterial therapy. The intellectual QL of CF patients’ labour was directly related to SA (r=0.56, p<0.05). A similar direct correlation was observed between GH and FEV₁(% predicted) (r=0.51, p < 0.05). QL proved to have no correlation to the length of disease and body mass index. All QL indices except pain and PA were notably higher in CF than BA. The results show an adverse impact of CF on adult patients' QL, more pronounced in women than men. Home antibacterial therapy has beneficial social and mental effects. CF has a smaller impact on QL than BA.