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RehabMeasures Instrument

Saint George’s Respiratory Questionnaire

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Purpose

The Saint George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) is a self-reported disease-specific, health-related quality of life (QOL) questionnaire. It was originally developed to measure the impact of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) on a person’s life, but has also been studied and applied to non-COPD pulmonary populations.

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Instrument Details

Acronym SGRQ

Assessment Type

Patient Reported Outcomes

Administration Mode

Paper & Pencil

Cost

Free

Diagnosis/Conditions

  • Pulmonary Disorders

Key Descriptions

  • The American version of the SGRQ (SGRQ-A, adapted from the original British English version) consists of 76 items in three domains:
    1) Symptoms
    2) Activity
    3) Impact of disease on daily life
  • Part 1 (first 8 questions) asks for symptom recall of the previous 4 weeks; this is a change from the previous version of the SGRQ.
  • There are versions with 3-month and 1-year symptom recall domains.
  • A total score is calculated from 0 (no health impairment) to 100 (maximum health impairment).
  • In addition to the total score, there is also a score for each domain: symptoms, activity, and impact which are scored 0 – 100 as well.
  • Dyspnea is not measured specifically, but it is included in the symptom scale, along with information about cough, sputum production, and wheezing.
  • Test items are weighted and scored using an Excel calculator.

Number of Items

76

Equipment Required

  • Copy of questionnaire: https://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/03/briefing/3976B1_01_L-Glaxo-Appendices.pdf
  • Excel calculator

Time to Administer

10 minutes

Required Training

Reading an Article/Manual

Age Ranges

Adult

18 - 64

years

Elderly Adult

65 +

years

Instrument Reviewers

Initially reviewed by Jason Barbas, PT, DPT, NCS in 1/2010  

ICF Domain

Body Function

Professional Association Recommendation

Recommendations have not been made

Considerations

  • May not be appropriate for setting short term goals due to 4-week symptom recall section
  • Patient will report improved overall health-related quality of life (SGRQ total score change > 4.0) upon completion of 8-week pulmonary rehabilitation program.

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Pulmonary Diseases

back to Populations

Minimal Detectable Change (MDC)

COPD: (Jones, 2005; literature review)

  • MDC = 4

Minimally Clinically Important Difference (MCID)

Pulmonary Rehabilitation: (Schunemann et al, 2003; n= 84 patients who completed the CRQ, SGRQ, and FT before beginning pulmonary rehabilitation and 3 months later; mean age = 65.8 (7.6) years)

  • MCID = 4

Normative Data

COPD: (Ferrer et al, 2002; n = 862 probable cases of COPD, 460 of which were eligible to complete the SGRQ; sex = 533 males and 329 females; age range 40-69 years)

  • Education
    • Attended High School or University: 42.5%
    • Attended Primary/No School: 56.7%
  • Smoking Status
    • Never Smoke: 52.7%
    • Former Smoker: 24.1%
    • Smoker >20 pack-yrs: 13.2%
    • Smoker <20 pack-years: 10.0%
  • Respiratory Disease
    • COPD: 10.2%
    • Asthma: 3.6%

Test/Retest Reliability

COPD/Pulmonary Disease(Barr et al, 2000; n = 102 patients with COPD (92 patients with COPD who completed the retest and 75 patients who completed the entire pulmonary rehabilitation program); mean age = 68 (9.34) years)

  • Excellent test-retest reliability for patients who completed the entire pulmonary rehabilitation program (ICC = 0.795 to 0.900)

Test-retest reliability (ICC) of the American translation of the St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ-A) for all patients (n = 92) who took the test at baseline and the next pulmonary rehabilitation session 

Score

All patients (n = 92)

Completers (n = 75)

Symptoms-

1 year

0.678 Adequate

0.795 Excellent

Symptoms-

1 month

0.770 Excellent

0.834 Excellent

 

Activity

0.848 Excellent

0.824 Excellent

 

Impact

0.895 Excellent

 

0.890 Excellent

Total- 1 year

0.906 Excellent

 

0.900 Excellent

Total- 1 month

0.908 Excellent

 

0.899 Excellent

Interrater/Intrarater Reliability

COPD: (Ketelarrs et al, 1996; = 126 patients with COPD who were recruited on admission to a pulmonary rehabilitation center; mean age = 65 (9) years)

  • Poor interrater reliability for symptoms (Chronbach alpha = 0.60)

  • Excellent interrater reliability for activities (Chronbach alpha = 0.82)

  • Adequate interrater reliability for impact (Chronbach alpha = 0.71)

Internal Consistency

COPD / Pulmonary Disease: (Barr et al, 2000)

Internal Consistency of the American translation of the St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ-A):

Score

Cronbach Alpha

Symptoms-1 year

Poor (0.42)  

Symptoms-1 month

Adequate (0.72)

Activity

Excellent (0.83)

Impact

Excellent (0.82)

Total-1 year

Excellent (0.88)

Total-1 month

Excellent (0.90)

Construct Validity

COPD / Pulmonary Disease: (Rutten-Van Molken, 1999; n = 144 patients with moderate or severe COPD) and (Hajiro, 1998; patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) 

  • Poor to adequate construct validity for all components (= 0.30-0.72) 
  • Discriminate validity was demonstrated when all components of the SGRQ-A with the modified 1-month symptom-reporting period were shown to discriminate better between disease-severity groups

Floor/Ceiling Effects

COPD / Pulmonary Disease: (Barr et al, 2000)

  • Adequate floor and ceiling effects (<3%)

Responsiveness

COPD/Pulmonary Disease: (Harper et al, 1997; n = 156 patients with COPD attending routine outpatient clinic; 76 males; mean age = 67 (10.4) years; 80 females; mean age = 62 (10.3) years)

  • Good responsiveness (intervention: pulmonary rehab) 

  • Responsiveness of the SGRQ-A to change in health status was demonstrated when scores on the symptoms 1-month and total 1-month components detected significant improvements in patients’ health status (p = 0.02 and p = 0.04)

Bibliography

Barr, J. T., Schumacher, G. E., et al. (2000). "American translation, modification, and validation of the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire." Clin Ther 22(9): 1121-1145. 

Ferrer, M., Villasante, C., et al. (2002). "Interpretation of quality of life scores from the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire." Eur Respir J 19(3): 405-413. 

Harper, R., Brazier, J. E., et al. (1997). "Comparison of outcome measures for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in an outpatient setting." Thorax 52(10): 879-887. 

Jones, P. W. (2005). "St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire: MCID." Copd 2(1): 75-79. 

Ketelaars, C. A., Schlosser, M. A., et al. (1996). "Determinants of health-related quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease." Thorax 51(1): 39-43. 

Rutten-van Molken, M., Roos, B., et al. (1999). "An empirical comparison of the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire (CRQ) in a clinical trial setting." Thorax 54(11): 995-1003. 

Schunemann, H. J., Griffith, L., et al. (2003). "Evaluation of the minimal important difference for the feeling thermometer and the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire in patients with chronic airflow obstruction." J Clin Epidemiol 56(12): 1170-1176.