Characterization of secondary care for COPD in Sweden

Comorbid conditions as predictors of mortality in severe COPD - an eight-year follow-up cohort study

Purpose

Co-morbidities are common in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The aim of the present study was to explore the prevalence of several comorbid conditions in severe COPD, and to investigate and compare their associations with long-term mortality.

Methods

In May 2011 to March 2012, 241 patients with COPD stage 3 or 4 were included in the study. Information was collected on sex, age, smoking history, weight and height, current pharmacological treatment, number of exacerbations the recent year and comorbid conditions. At December 31st, 2019, mortality data (all-cause and cause specific) were collected from the National Cause of Death Register. Data were analyzed using Cox-regression analysis with gender, age, previously established predictors of mortality and comorbid conditions as independent variables, and all-cause mortality and cardiac and respiratory mortality, respectively, as dependent variables.

Results

Out of 241 patients, 155 (64%) were deceased at the end of the study period; 103 patients (66%) died of respiratory disease and 25 (16%) of cardiovascular disease. Impaired kidney function was the only comorbid condition independently associated with increased all-cause mortality (HR (95% CI) 3.41 (1.47-7.93) p=0.004) and respiratory mortality (HR (95%CI) 4.63 (1.61 to 13.4), p = 0.005). In addition, age ≥70, BMI <22 and lower FEV1 expressed as %predicted were significantly associated with increased all-cause and respiratory mortality.

Conclusion

In addition to the risk factors high age, low BMI and poor lung function; impaired kidney function appears to be an important risk factor for mortality in the long term, which should be taken into account in the medical care of patients with severe COPD.

Subjective swallowing symptoms and related risk factors in COPD

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of subjective (i.e. self-reported) swallowing symptoms in a large cohort of patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to identify potential related risk factors.

Methods

A total of 571 patients with COPD, investigated in a stable phase, participated in this multicentre study (335 females, 236 males; mean age: 68.6 years (sd 7.7)). Data were derived from spirometry, a questionnaire and a 30-metre walking test.

Results

In total, 33% (n=186) patients reported at least some degree of swallowing problem. The most frequently reported symptom was food lodging in the throat (23%). A significant relationship was found between swallowing symptoms and dyspnoea, assessed as modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) ≥2 compared with <2 (46% versus 22%; p<0.001) and health-related quality of life, assessed as the COPD Assessment Test (CAT) ≥10 (40% versus 19%; p<0.001). Swallowing problems were also related to lower physical capacity (p=0.02) but not to lung function (p>0.28).

Conclusion

Subjective swallowing symptoms seem to be a common problem in patients with stable COPD. This problem is seen in all stages of the disease, but is more common in symptomatic patients and in patients with lower physical capacity.

Determinants of medical prescriptions for COPD care: an analysis of the EPOCONSUL clinical audit

Purpose

Current COPD management recommendations indicate that pharmacological treatment can be stepped up or down, but there are no recommendations on how to make this adjustment. We aimed to describe pharmacological prescriptions during a routine clinical visit for COPD and study the determinants of changing therapy.

Methods

EPOCONSUL is a Spanish nationwide observational cross-sectional clinical audit with prospective case recruitment including 4,508 COPD patients from outpatient respiratory clinics for a period of 12 months (May 2014–May 2015). Prescription patterns were examined in 4,448 cases and changes analyzed in stepwise backward, binomial, multivariate, logistic regression models.

Results

Patterns of prescription of inhaled therapy groups were no treatment prescribed, 124 (2.8%) cases; one or two long-acting bronchodilators (LABDs) alone, 1,502 (34.6%) cases; LABD with inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs), 389 (8.6%) cases; and triple therapy cases, 2,428 (53.9%) cases. Incorrect prescriptions of inhaled therapies were observed in 261 (5.9%) cases. After the clinical visit was audited, 3,494 (77.5%) cases did not modify their therapeutic prescription, 307 (6.8%) cases had a step up, 238 (5.3%) cases had a change for a similar scheme, 182 (4.1%) cases had a step down, and 227 (5.1%) cases had other nonspecified change. Stepping-up strategies were associated with clinical presentation (chronic bronchitis, asthma-like symptoms, and exacerbations), a positive bronchodilator test, and specific inhaled medication groups. Stepping down was associated with lung function impairment, ICS containing regimens, and nonexacerbator phenotype.

Conclusion

The EPOCONSUL study shows a comprehensive evaluation of pharmacological treatments in COPD care, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, to help us understand how physicians use available drugs.

Community Assessment of COPD Health Care (COACH) study: a clinical audit on primary care performance variability in COPD care

Background

A thorough evaluation of the adequacy of clinical practice in a designated health care setting and temporal context is key for clinical care improvement. This study aimed to perform a clinical audit of primary care to evaluate clinical care delivered to patients with COPD in routine clinical practice.

Methods

The Community Assessment of COPD Health Care (COACH) study was an observational, multicenter, nationwide, non-interventional, retrospective, clinical audit of randomly selected primary care centers in Spain. Two different databases were built: the resources and organization database and the clinical database. From January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2016 consecutive clinical cases of COPD in each participating primary care center (PCC) were audited. For descriptive purposes, we collected data regarding the age at diagnosis of COPD and the age at audit, gender, the setting of the PCC (rural/urban), and comorbidities for each patient. Two guidelines widely and uniformly used in Spain were carefully reviewed to establish a benchmark of adequacy for the audited cases. Clinical performance was analyzed at the patient, center, and regional levels. The degree of adequacy was categorized as excellent (> 80%), good (60–80%), adequate (40–59%), inadequate (20–39%), and highly inadequate (< 20%).

Results

During the study 4307 cases from 63 primary care centers in 6 regions of the country were audited. Most evaluated parameters were judged to fall in the inadequate performance category. A correct diagnosis based on previous exposure plus spirometric obstruction was made in an average of 17.6% of cases, ranging from 9.8 to 23.3% depending on the region. During the audited visit, only 67 (1.6%) patients had current post-bronchodilator obstructive spirometry; 184 (4.3%) patients had current post-bronchodilator obstructive spirometry during either the audited or initial diagnostic visit. Evaluation of dyspnea was performed in 11.1% of cases. Regarding treatment, 33.6% received no maintenance inhaled therapies (ranging from 31.3% in GOLD A to 7.0% in GOLD D). The two most frequently registered items were exacerbations in the previous year (81.4%) and influenza vaccination (87.7%).

Conclusions

The results of this audit revealed a large variability in clinical performance across centers, which was not fully attributable to the severity of the disease.

Exacerbations and healthcare resource utilization among COPD patients in a Swedish registry-based nation-wide study

BACKGROUND

Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are an important measure of disease severity in terms of impaired disease progression, increased recovery time, healthcare resource utilization, overall morbidity and mortality. We aimed to quantify exacerbation and healthcare resource utilization rates among COPD patients in Sweden with respect to baseline treatments, exacerbation history, and comorbidities.

METHODS

Patients with a COPD or chronic bronchitis (CB) diagnosis in secondary care at age of ≥40 years on 1.7.2009 were identified and followed until 1.7.2010 or death. Severe exacerbations were defined as hospitalizations due to respiratory disease, and healthcare resource utilization was measured by all-cause hospitalizations and secondary care visits. Poisson regression was used adjusting for age, gender, time since COPD/CB diagnosis, and Charlson comorbidity index.

RESULTS

In 88,548 patients (54% females, mean age 72 years), previous respiratory hospitalizations and current high use of COPD medication (double or triple therapy) predicted an 8.3-fold increase in severe exacerbation rates and 1.8-fold increase in healthcare resource utilization rates in the following year, compared to patients without combination treatment and/or history of severe exacerbations.

CONCLUSIONS

COPD/CB patients with history of severe exacerbations and high use of COPD medication experienced a significantly increased rate of severe exacerbations and healthcare resource utilization during the one-year follow-up.

2017 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease reclassifies half of COPD subjects to lower risk group

Background

Unlike the 2014 guidelines, the 2017 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines have removed lung function from the risk assessment algorithm of patients with COPD. The aim of this investigation was to analyze the proportion of subjects who would change to a lower risk group when applying GOLD²⁰¹⁷ and determine if they exhibit different characteristics in terms of inflammation, symptoms and comorbidity compared to the subjects who would remain in a high-risk group.

Subjects and methods

A total of 571 subjects with physician-diagnosed and spirometry-verified COPD were included in the present study. The data consisted of measurements of lung function, inflammatory markers, together with questionnaires that covered comorbidities, COPD symptoms and medication.

Results

From group C, 53% of the subjects would be reclassified to the lower risk group A, and from group D, 47% of the subjects would be reclassified to the lower risk group B when using GOLD²⁰¹⁷ instead of GOLD²⁰¹⁴. Compared to the subjects who would remain in group D, those who would change to group B were more often men (56% vs 72%); of an older age, mean (SD), 71 (8) years vs 68 (7) years; had more primary care contact (54% vs 33%); had lower levels of blood neutrophils, geometrical mean (95% CI), 5.3 (5.0, 5.7) vs 4.6 (4.3, 4.9); reported less anxiety/depression (20% vs 34%); experienced less asthma (29% vs 46%) and had fewer symptoms according to the COPD assessment test, 16 (5) vs 21 (7). All p-values were <0.05.

Conclusion

The removal of spirometry from risk assessment in GOLD²⁰¹⁷ would lead to the reclassification of approximately half of the subjects in the risk groups C and D to the lower risk groups A and B. There are differences in age, gender, health care contacts, inflammation, comorbidity and symptom burden among those changing from group D to group B. The effects of reclassification and changes in eventual treatment for disease control and symptom burden need further investigation.