Intermittent claudication (IC), or pain in the lower extremities experienced and walking, is a common manifestation of atherosclerosis. There is considerable disagreement among physicians as to whether optimal quality of life is achieved for patients by medical or surgical care of IC. Inasmuch as there presently exists no reliable and valid instrument for assessing health-related quality of life (HRQL) in patients with IC, the specific aims of this pilot study are (1) to develop an acceptable questionnaire of office evaluation of HRQL in patients with IC, and (2) to test the questionnaire for reliability and validity. Patients will be recruited for this pilot study from Veterans Administration-based general outpatient medical clinics and vascular surgery clinics. Following development of an acceptable questionnaire and iterative preliminary testing in groups of 10 patients, the questionnaire to be tested will be administered to approximately 200 patients and their responses and will be assessed for reliability and validity. The arterial etiology of IC in this group of patients will be conformed and its severity quantitated by means of resting flow and pressure measurements and treadmill exercise testing. The ultimate goal of this project is to establish an accurate instrument for the evaluation of HRQL in a broad range of patients with IC of arterial etiology, and to use this instrument to study the relative effects on functional health of a range of therapies for IC.
