COPD: Burden of Disease

Burden of Disease

Physical Limitations
A majority of patients with COPD said their condition limited what they can do (some or a lot) in (Figure 13):

Normal physical exertion (70%)
Lifestyle (58%)
Household chores (56%)
Social activities (53%)
Sleeping (50%)

Half of people with COPD (51%) reported that their condition limited their ability to work (Figure 14).

34% said that COPD kept them from working.
17% said their condition limited them in the kind or amount of work they can do.

Measures of work limitation most likely understated the disease burden because more than half of these people were already retired (Figure 3).

The disease burden of COPD was also seen in the demand for urgent or emergency medical care. Among people aged 55 and older with COPD (Figure 15):

15% were hospitalized overnight in the past year for their condition.
17% had emergency room visits in the past year for their condition.
24% had other unscheduled medical visits in the past year for their condition.

This use of urgent care among patients with COPD was surprising given the frequency of regularly scheduled physician visits they reported. In addition, just as younger patients reported more severe and frequent symptoms than did older patients, there was also a greater degree of healthcare utilization among younger patients (i.e., those aged 45-54) (Figure 15):

27% had emergency room visits in the past year for their condition.
32% had other unscheduled emergency visits for their condition.

Doctor visits were relatively frequent for patients with COPD (Figure 16). Nearly a quarter (24%) saw a doctor for their condition at least once a month and a total of 74% saw a doctor at least a few times a year. However, 13% did not see a doctor about their condition in the past year.

Psychosocial Impact
Nearly a quarter (23%) of patients said their breathing problems have made them an invalid (Figure 17). Even larger proportions of patients with COPD said they:

worried about having an exacerbation away from home (39%)
had a hard time making plans because of their condition (47%)
felt that they are not in control of their breathing (52%)
panicked when they could not get their breath (58%)
admitted that their coughing was embarrassing in public (52%)
expected their condition to get worse (66%)

The apparent psychosocial impact of COPD appeared to vary with age. On five out of seven measures, younger patients appeared to be more distressed by their condition than did older patients (Figure 18).