Health and Quality of Life Outcomes This Provisional PDF corresponds to the article as it appeared upon acceptance Fully formatted PDF and full text (HTML) versions will be made available soon Predictors of health status not change over three-year periods and exacerbation makes difference in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2011, 9:112 doi:10.1186/1477-7525-9-112 Renata Ferrari (renataferrarifisio@gmail.com) Suzana E Tanni (suzanapneumo@hotmail.com) Laura M O Caram (laucaram@hotmail.com) Cristiane R Naves (crica_naves@hotmail.com) Irma Godoy (irma@fmb.unesp.br) ISSN Article type 1477-7525 Research Submission date 30 May 2011 Acceptance date December 2011 Publication date December 2011 Article URL http://www.hqlo.com/content/9/1/112 This peer-reviewed article was published immediately upon acceptance It can be downloaded, printed and distributed freely for any purposes (see copyright notice below) Articles in HQLO are listed in PubMed and archived at PubMed Central For information about publishing your research in HQLO or any BioMed Central journal, go to http://www.hqlo.com/authors/instructions/ For information about other BioMed Central publications go to http://www.biomedcentral.com/ © 2011 Ferrari et al ; licensee BioMed Central Ltd This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited Predictors of health status not change over three-year periods and exacerbation makes difference in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Renata Ferrari*,1, Suzana E Tanni1, Laura M O Caram1, Cristiane R Naves1, Irma Godoy1 Faculdade de Medicina, UNESP - Univ Estadual Paulista, Campus de Botucatu, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Botucatu, SP, Brasil *Corresponding author: RF: renataferrarifisio@gmail.com Email addresses: SET: suzanapneumo@hotmail.com LMOC: laucaram@hotmail.com CRN: crica_naves@hotmail.com IG: irma@fmb.unesp.br Abstract Background: The association between disease markers and health status (HS) overtime is unclear The aim of this study was to verify the predictors of HS at baseline and after three years in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients Methods: Ninety-five consecutive COPD patients (66% male, age=67±9 y, FEV1=58±23%) underwent the following evaluations at baseline and after three years: body composition, pulse oximetry (SpO2), six-minute walk distance (6MWD), Modified edical Research Council dyspnea scale (MMRC) and Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) The Charlson comorbidity index and BODE index were calculated COPD exacerbations during the follow-up were evaluated At baseline, age, gender, smoking, SpO2, BODE index or its components (BMI, MMRC, FEV1 and 6MWD), and Charlson index were included in a multiple linear regression analysis with the baseline SGRQ total score as the dependent variable After three years, we included the final values of the variables plus the number of exacerbations and the final SGRQ total score as the dependent variable Results: SGRQ total score (42±19% vs 44±19%; p=0.041) and activity domain (52±21% vs 60±22%; p