MEASURING FUNCTIONAL STATUS OF CHRONIC CORONARY PATIENTS - RELIABILITY, VALIDITY AND RESPONSIVENESS TO CLINICAL-CHANGE OF THE REDUCED VERSION OF THE DUKE ACTIVITY STATUS INDEX (DASI)

Aims Health-related quality of life assessment may be useful for under standing the variability in functioning of patients with a similar lev el of clinical impairment. We assessed the reliability, validity and r esponsiveness to clinical change of a reduced version of the Duke Acti vity Status Index (DASI) in chronic coronary patients. Methods and res ults The reduced version of the DASI, a measure of self-reported funct ional capacity, was administered twice to two groups of patients: 46 s table coronary heart disease outpatients were tested and re-tested 2 w eeks after their initial visit; and 44 patients undergoing elective an gioplasty for angina pectoris were evaluated the day before and one mo nth after the procedure. The Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) fun ctional grade was assessed in all patients, and a treadmill exercise t est was performed sequentially (before and after the procedure) in ang ioplasty patients. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients for reduc ed DASI scores were high (between 0.81 and 0.89). Correlations of the reduced DASI scores with CCS grade and exercise test duration were mod erately high (r=-0.51 and r=0.45, respectively). Improvement after ang ioplasty as assessed by the reduced DASI scores was important (effect size=0.75, P<0.001). Conclusion The reduced DASI is reliable, valid an d responsive to clinical changes. Health-related duality of life measu res may be useful in monitoring coronary patients.