Physician Care and COPD Management

Patients with COPD gave their doctors high marks for knowledge and care (Figure 19):

• 91% said their doctor is "genuinely concerned about helping me."
• 86% said their doctor is knowledgeable about their condition and treatment.
• 80% said their doctor involves them in decisions about their treatment.

On the other hand, some patients with COPD indicated significant problems with doctor-patient interactions:

• 36% said doctors do not understand their suffering from the condition.
• 36% said their doctor thinks the condition is their fault.
• 26% said their doctor doesn't think he can do anything to relieve their symptoms.
• 19% said their doctor doesn't have time to answer their questions.

Overall, most patients were satisfied with their care. Six out of seven said they were very (58%) or somewhat (28%) satisfied with their doctor's management of their condition (Figure 20). But less than half (42%) said their doctor's advice had helped improve their ability to manage their condition "a lot" (Figure 21).

Patients overwhelmingly agreed (89%) that COPD is a serious health problem in the United States, but they were also optimistic about new developments and the benefits of proper management (Figure 22). Though two thirds (66%) acknowledged that COPD tended to get worse with age regardless of treatment, most had positive attitudes about treatment:

• 80% felt that the progressive increase in breathlessness can be slowed.
• 78% felt that there is better control of the disease than there was five years ago.
• 74% felt that with a proper treatment plan it is possible to lead a full and active life.

Doctors shared their patients' optimism (Figure 23):

• 76% of doctors said that the long-term health outlook for patients with COPD is better now than it was 10 years ago.
• Most of these doctors (78%) attributed this improvement to better medications.