Chest
Original ResearchCOPDAffective Descriptors of the Sensation of Breathlessness Are More Highly Associated With Severity of Impairment Than Physical Descriptors in People With COPD
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
This study used a prospective, observational, correlational design. Ethical approval was granted by ethics committees of the University of South Australia and the Repatriation General Hospital. People with a current or prior physician diagnosis of COPD preparing to undertake the pulmonary rehabilitation program at the Repatriation General Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia were invited to participate in the study. Subjects were excluded from the study if they had severe musculoskeletal or
Results
One hundred and seven people accepted the invitation to participate in this study. Three subjects with a primary diagnosis of asthma and 13 subjects who did not meet the pulmonary function requirements for COPD (FEV1/FVC < 0.70; FEV1 < 80% predicted25) were excluded from the data analysis. The remaining 91 subjects had a primary diagnosis of COPD and met the diagnostic criteria for COPD. Asthma-COPD overlap was not included as a diagnosis. Table 1 presents a summary of subject characteristics.
Discussion
This study explored associations between the language used to describe recalled sensations of breathlessness and commonly used clinical outcome measures. The study was not designed to investigate the mechanisms resulting in different sensory qualities of dyspnea (air hunger, work/effort, tightness, and so forth), although given the findings such research would be useful. In this convenience cohort of subjects with COPD who were attending pre-pulmonary rehabilitation assessment, subjects
Conclusion
The findings of this study indicate that affective rather than somatic descriptors have a more predictable relationship with respiratory-related impairments in COPD. Affective terms used to recall the sensation of breathlessness may reflect the degree of threat imposed by the sensation or the emotional response to the sensation and hence predict the likelihood of long-term behavioral changes. It is unclear whether altering emotional responses to the sensation of breathlessness results in
Acknowledgments
Author contributions: Dr Williams: contributed to conceiving the study, collecting and interpreting the data, compiling the original draft including tables, leading revisions, and editing and final formatting.
Mr Cafarella: contributed to study design, data collection and interpretation, and revising and editing the manuscript.
Dr Olds: contributed to all figures, assisted in data management and analysis, and revised and edited the manuscript.
Mr Petkov: contributed to completing all analysis, and
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Funding/Support: This work was supported by the Physiotherapy Research Foundation: Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Australia research grant.
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