Psychological factors contributing to disproportionate disability in chronic bronchitis.

Disability in fifty chronic bronchitis patients was measured by the twelve-minute walking test. The degree of disability was examined in relation to lung function and a measure of disproportion of disability was derived. This measure was significantly related to a number of attitude measures, in particular the patients' beliefs about treatment and treatment outcome, but was not strongly related to psychiatric disturbance on the GHQ. However, high levels of psychiatric disturbance were found within the overall sample.