Severity of CF

Question

What is the relationship between the severity of CF and the quality of life in patients with CF?

Answer

Dear questioner,
This is an interesting question for which there is no simple answer. Quality of life is a broad topic including the physical, social and emotional well-being of a person. For both healthy people and patients with CF quality of life depends on many factors.
Studies including patients with CF have shown that quality of life depends to a certain extent on the severity of the illness (often expressed in lung function or FEV1%predicted). But, this doesn’t mean that all patients with a lower lung function report a poor quality of life. For example, patients with a lower FEV1%predicted may not be able to run or walk stairs like their healthy peers, which may make them report a lower physical quality of life. However, this does not mean that these patients’ quality of life is impaired in other areas, for example their social quality of life. Quality of life is related to many things, including a person’s physical condition, the medical care and support s/he has, career, education, social support (partner, family, friends, etc), financial circumstances etc.
Above all, quality of life is related to the way a person copes or deals with the illness. We know that patients with a positive outlook on life often report a better quality of life than patients with a more negative outlook. We also know that patients who are anxious and/or depressed often report a lower quality of life than those patients who are not. Cystic Fibrosis has an impact on the quality of life of patients; however the extent of this and the specific aspects of quality of life that it impacts on is related to many factors, not just illness severity.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. Kris de Boeck

12.06.2009