The health-related quality of life of people with peripheral arterial disease in the community: the Edinburgh Artery Study.

BACKGROUND Previous studies investigating the health-related quality of life of those with peripheral arterial disease have focused on patients recruited from hospital clinics. The health-related quality of life of people with peripheral arterial disease in the general population is unknown. AIMS We aimed to determine the health-related quality of life of people with intermittent claudication and asymptomatic peripheral arterial disease in the general population and to compare it with those with angina and those with no peripheral arterial disease or angina. DESIGN OF STUDY Analysis of cross-sectional data from the 12-year follow-up of a population-based cohort. SETTING Edinburgh, Scotland. METHOD Data from the Edinburgh Artery Study cohort's 12-year follow-up was analysed. Participants' peripheral arterial disease status was measured using the World Health Organisation intermittent claudication questionnaire and the ankle brachial pressure index. Self-assessed health-related quality of life data was collected using the SF-36 generic questionnaire. Health-related quality of life scores were calculated and their associations with peripheral arterial disease status groups were tested. RESULTS Subjects with intermittent claudication had significantly worse median health-related quality of life scores than patients without claudication in all domains except social functioning and mental health. Patients with claudication had a significantly lower physical component summary score than those without claudication (P </= 0.001). This association remained after adjustment for age, sex, social class, body mass index, smoking, and angina. Those with angina and claudication had significantly worse physical component summary scores than those with no peripheral arterial disease or angina (P </= 0.001). No significant difference was found in health-related quality of life scores between those with asymptomatic peripheral arterial disease and those with no peripheral arterial disease even after multiple adjustment for confounding factors. CONCLUSION People with intermittent claudication in the community had impaired health-related quality of life related to reduced physical health, but asymptomatic peripheral arterial disease did not significantly affect health-related quality of life.