Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a leading\ncause of mortality. People living with COPD often have a common triad of\nproblems including decreased health-related quality of life (HRQL), smoking,\nand depression. Identifying barriers to preventing and treating COPD is of\nthe utmost importance. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship\nbetween HRQL, depression, and smoking status for patients with COPD.\nMethods: The 2016 BRFSS data was used to perform a cross sectional analysis\nof adult patients with a diagnosis of COPD. A comprehensive descriptive\nanalysis of all study variables for those participants having COPD was performed.\nThen relationships between general HRQL, depression, and smoking\nstatus were examined. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Results: The original\n2016 BRFSS dataset contained responses from 486,303 participants. After selecting\nparticipants who self-identified as having a diagnosis of COPD, 40,682\nindividual participants remained in the dataset for further analysis. The participants\nwith COPD were mostly female, over the age of 65, with low-incomes,\nattended a year of college or less, with some type of healthcare coverage. Patients\nwith a dual diagnosis of COPD and depression have poorer HRQL and\nan increased number of cigarettes smoked compared to those patients with\nCOPD. Likewise, there is a significant relationship between HRQL and\nsmoking status for patients with a dual diagnosis of COPD and depression.\nConclusion: Depression as a comorbidity does have a statistically significant\nrelationship with patients HRQL and smoking status. Future research should\nbe aimed at increasing screening and treatment for depression in patients\nwith COPD who continue to smoke. Further research on the cyclical relationship between COPD, depression, and smoking cessation would be beneficial.
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