The Relationship between Experienced Respiratory Symptoms and Health-Related Quality of Life in the Elderly with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Table 1

Relationship between demographic characteristics and HRQoL in elderly patients with COPD.

Variables		N (%)	HRQoL
			Mean ± SD	value
Gender	Male	162 (74.7)	42.6 ± 18.5	0.04^a
	Female	55 (25.3)	37.1 ± 16.6
Marital status	Married	175 (80.6)	42.2 ± 18.6	0.12^a
	Divorced or widow	42 (19.4)	37.4 ± 15.5
Level of education	None	132 (60.8)	39.3 ± 17.0	0.04^b
	Primary and middle school	64 (29.5)	42.8 ± 19.0
	High school and any academic	21 (9.7)	49.0 ± 20.0
COPD type	Chronic bronchitis	26 (12)	43.9 ± 18.4
	Emphysema	24 (11.1)	32.8 ± 18.2	0.07^b
	Both	167 (77)	42.1 ± 17.9
Disease duration	Up to one year	57 (26.3)	45.0 ± 20.0	0.01^b
	1 to 15 years	131 (60.4)	41.5 ± 17.7
	More than 15 years	29 (13.4)	32.5 ± 13.5
Number of hospitalizations in the past year	One	75 (34.6)	46.2 ± 19.4	0.001^b
	Two	67 (30.9)	42.0 ± 17.3
	Three	36 (16.6)	39.6 ± 16.0
	More than 3	39 (18.0)	32.0 ± 15.7
Medication type	Bronchodilator	120 (55.3)	44.7 ± 18.8	0.002^b
	Corticosteroid	2 (0.9)	40.39 ± 5.3
	Both	86 (39.6)	35.9 ± 14.8
Comorbidity	Yes	111 (51.2)	40.5 ± 19.3	0.5^,a
	No	106 (48.8)	42.0 ± 17.0
Smoking history	Yes	138 (63.6)	40.7 ± 17.0	0.57^a
	No	79 (36.4)	42.2 ± 20.0

COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; HRQoL: health-related quality of life. ^aIndependent samples t-test. ^bOne-way ANOVA.