Impairment, disability and handicap in chronic respiratory illness

Simon J. Williams and Michael R. Bury

Social Science & Medicine, 1989, vol. 29, issue 5, 609-616

Abstract: Chronic obstructive airways disease (COAD) is a major, though neglected, medical and social problem in the United Kingdom today. Dyspnoea is one of the most distressing and disabling symptoms of COAD, which is itself the largest single cause of absence from work in the United Kingdom. 92 patients suffering from COAD were interviewed in order to assess impairment, disability and handicap. Measures included spirometric tests of lung function; the Fletcher breathlessness grading scale, the oxygen cost diagram and a visual analogue scale of dyspnoea; the Functional Limitations Profile (FLP); and the shortened 12 item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), supplemented by the 7-item GHQ sub-scales of anxiety and severe depression. Low correlations were found between lung function and disability (-0.38, P

Keywords: respiratory; illness; impairment; disability; handicap; psychosocial (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1989
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