Two questionnaires for asthma and COPD, one COPD specific questionnaire and one for left ventricular failure have been developed at St George’s, University of London.
St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ)
The SGRQ questionnaire (PDF) has 50 items with 76 weighted responses. It has good discriminative and evaluative properties and is responsive to therapeutic trials. It was developed and validated in both asthma and COPD, although it has also been validated for use in bronchiectasis, interstitial lung disease, post tuberculosis lung, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary leiomyomatosis and sarcoidosis. There is a large literature concerning the use of the questionnaire in many settings, including normal values. It takes 8-15 minutes to complete and is best scored using a computer. The SGRQ is best thought of as a research or audit tool.
SGRQ-C
The SGRQ-C (PDF) is a shorter version of the SGRQ, derived from the original version following detailed analysis of data from large studies in COPD. The SGRQ-C has been developed using COPD data only, so is valid for this disease. The validity for its use in other conditions has yet to be established, but it is unlikely to perform very differently from the SGRQ.
Other questionnaires developed at St George's, University of London
Airways Questionnaire 20 (AQ20)
This questionnaire was developed using a different methodology from the SGRQ to provide a simpler method of assessing health status in routine practice. It is suitable for both asthma and COPD and has been validated in both conditions. It takes 2-3 minutes to complete and is easy to score. It correlates well with more complex disease-specific questionnaires for asthma and COPD. It has not been used in many therapeutic studies, so cannot be recommended for use as the sole outcome measure in clinical trials.
Left Ventricular Dysfunction Questionnaire (LVD36)
This questionnaire was developed from first principles specifically for patients with left ventricular failure. It has 36 items and takes less than 5 minutes to complete and score. It has both discriminative and evaluative properties.