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Five comorbidities reflected the health status in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: the newly
Anja Frei1, Patrick Muggensturm2, Nirupama Putcha3
1Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, Department of Epidemiology, University of Zurich, Hirschengraben 84, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland; Institute of General Practice and Health Services Research, University of Zurich, Pestalozzistrasse 24, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland.
Objective:
This study aimed to identify those comorbidities with greatest impact on patient-reported health status in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to develop a comorbidity index that reflects their combined impact.
Study Design And Setting:
We included 408 Swiss and Dutch primary care patients with COPD from the International Collaborative Effort on Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease: Exacerbation Risk Index Cohorts (ICE COLD ERIC) in this cross-sectional analysis. Primary outcome was the Feeling Thermometer, a patient-reported health status instrument. We assessed the impact of comorbidities at five cohort assessment times using multiple linear regression adjusted for FEV1, retaining comorbidities with associations P ≤ 0.1. We developed an index that reflects strength of association of comorbidities with health status.
Results:
Depression (prevalence: 13.0%; regression coefficient: -9.00; 95% CI: -13.52, -4.48), anxiety (prevalence: 11.8%; regression coefficient: -5.53; 95% CI -10.25, -0.81), peripheral artery disease (prevalence: 6.4%; regression coefficient: -5.02; 95% CI-10.64, 0.60), cerebrovascular disease (prevalence: 8.8%; regression coefficient: -4.57; 95% CI -9.43, 0.29), and symptomatic heart disease (prevalence: 20.3%; regression coefficient: -3.81; 95% CI -7.23, -0.39) were most strongly associated with the Feeling Thermometer. These five comorbidities, weighted, compose the COMorbidities in Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COMCOLD) index.
Conclusion:
The COMCOLD index reflects the combined impact of five important comorbidities from patients' perspective and complements existing comorbidity indices that predict death. It may help clinicians focus on comorbidities affecting patients' health status the most.
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