Abstract
Exercise capacity declines with time and is an important determinant of health status and prognosis in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We hypothesised that hospital admissions are associated with exercise capacity decline in these patients.
Clinical and functional variables were collected for 342 clinically stable COPD patients. The 6-min walk distance (6MWD) was determined at baseline and after a mean±sd of 1.7±0.3 years. Information on hospitalisations during follow-up was obtained from centralised administrative databases. Linear regression was used to model changes in exercise capacity.
Patients were mostly male (92%), with mean±sd age 67.9±8.6 years, post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s 54±17% predicted and baseline 6MWD 433±93 m. During follow-up, 6MWD decreased by 21.9±51.0 m·year−1 and 153 (45%) patients were hospitalised at least once. Among patients admitted only for COPD-related causes (50% of those ever admitted), the proportion presenting a clinically significant loss of 6MWD was higher than in patients admitted for only nonrespiratory conditions (53% versus 29%, p=0.040). After adjusting for confounders, annual 6MWD decline was greater (26 m·year−1, 95% CI 13–38 m·year−1; p<0.001) in patients with more than one all-cause hospitalisation per year, as compared with those with no hospitalisations.
Hospitalisations are related to a greater decline in exercise capacity in COPD.
Abstract
Hospitalisations are associated with higher decline in exercise capacity in COPD patients http://ow.ly/rB8cc
Footnotes
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Support statement: The PAC-COPD Study is funded by grants from: Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS PI020541), Ministry of Health, Spain; Agència d’Avaluació de Tecnologia i Recerca Mèdiques (AATRM 035/20/02), Catalonia Government; Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR 2002/137); Catalan Foundation of Pneumology (FUCAP 2003 Beca Marià Ravà); Red RESPIRA (RTIC C03/11); Red RCESP (RTIC C03/09), Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (PI052486); Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (PI052302); Fundació La Marató de TV3 (number 041110); DURSI (2005SGR00392); and unrestricted educational grants from Novartis Farmacèutica, Spain, and AstraZeneca Farmacéutica, Spain. CIBERESP and CIBERES are funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministry of Health, Spain. There was no involvement of the funding sources in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication. The researchers are independent from the funders.
Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside the online version of this article at www.erj.ersjournals.com
- Received May 23, 2013.
- Accepted November 28, 2013.
- ©ERS 2014