Chronic breathlessness associated with poorer physical and mental health-related quality of life (SF-12) across all adult age groups.

Little is known about the impact of chronic breathlessness (modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) score ≥2 for most days, at least three of the last six months) on health-related quality of life (Short Form-12 (SF-12)). 3005 adults from randomly selected households were interviewed face-to-face in South Australia. mMRC ≥2 community prevalence was 2.9%. Adjusted analyses showed clinically meaningful and statistically significant decrements of physical and mental components of SF-12 (mean SF-12 summary scores in physical (-13.0 (-16.0 to -10.2)) and mental (-10.7 (-13.7 to -7.8)) components compared with people with mMRC=0) as chronic breathlessness severity increased, across five age groupings.