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Activities forgone because of chronic breathlessness: a cross-sectional, population prevalence study

Kochovska, Slavica; Chang, Sungwon; Morgan, Deidre D; Ferreira, Diana; Sidhu, Manraaj; Saleh Moussa, Rayan; Johnson, Miriam J; Ekström, Magnus; Currow, David C

Authors

Slavica Kochovska

Sungwon Chang

Deidre D Morgan

Diana Ferreira

Manraaj Sidhu

Rayan Saleh Moussa

Magnus Ekström

David C Currow



Abstract

Background
Chronic breathlessness is a prevalent, disabling syndrome affecting many people for years. Identifying the impact of chronic breathlessness on people’s activities in the general population is pivotal for designing symptom management strategies.
Objective
This study aimed to evaluate the association between chronic breathlessness and activities respondents identify can no longer be undertaken (‘activities foregone’).
Design
This population-based, cross sectional, online survey used a market research company’s database of 30,000 registrants for each sex, generating the planned sample size - 3,000 adults reflecting Australia’s 2016 Census by sex, age group, state of residence and rurality.
Setting/Subjects
The population of focus (n=583) reported a modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) breathlessness scale >1 and experienced this breathlessness for >3 months.
Measurements
Activities forgone were categorised by mMRC using coding derived from the Dyspnea Management Questionnaire domains. Activities were classified as ‘higher/lower intensity’ using Human Energy Expenditure scale.
Results
Respondents were: male 50.3%; median age 50.0 (IQR 29.0); with 66% living in metropolitan areas; reporting 1,749 activities forgone.
For people with mMRC 1 (n=533), 35% had not given up any activity, decreasing to 9% for mMRC 2 (n=38) and 3% for mMRC 3-4 (n=12). Intense sport (e.g. jogging, bike riding) was the top activity forgone: 42% (mMRC 1); 32% (mMRC 2); and 36% (mMRC 3-4). For respondents with mMRC 3-4, the next most prevalent activities foregone were ‘sexual activities’ (14%); ‘lower intensity sports’ (11%) and ‘other activities’ (11%).
Conclusions
People progressively reduce a wide range of activities because of their chronic breathlessness.

Citation

Kochovska, S., Chang, S., Morgan, D. D., Ferreira, D., Sidhu, M., Saleh Moussa, R., …Currow, D. C. (2020). Activities forgone because of chronic breathlessness: a cross-sectional, population prevalence study. Palliative Medicine Reports, 1(1), 166-170. https://doi.org/10.1089/pmr.2020.0083

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 28, 2020
Online Publication Date Aug 19, 2020
Publication Date 2020-08
Deposit Date Aug 4, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Palliative Medicine Reports
Publisher Mary Ann Liebert
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 1
Issue 1
Pages 166-170
DOI https://doi.org/10.1089/pmr.2020.0083
Keywords Breathlessness; Dyspnea; Symptom; Symptom assessment
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3551746
Publisher URL https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/pmr.2020.0083

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Copyright Statement
© Slavica Kochovska et al., 2020; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.





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