Symptom Burden of Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Attending the Westmead Breathlessness Service: Prevalence, Associations, and Sex-Related Differences

Abstract

Purpose

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive disease resulting in a range of symptoms including breathlessness. “Symptom burden” describes the severity and impact of multiple symptoms in an individual and is best quantified using validated symptom instruments but is not routinely measured in clinical practice. Therefore, we wanted to assess overall symptom burden in patients with moderate-to-severe COPD and find associated independent predictors.

Patients and methods

A single-centre cross-sectional study of patients with COPD who attended the Westmead Breathlessness Service between March 2017 and May 2022 was conducted. We obtained baseline demographic data, lung function, assessed quality of life (CAT), anxiety/depression (HADS), and measured symptom burden (CMSAS). We compared variables between men and women using unpaired t tests or Mann–Whitney tests for continuous variables, and Fisher’s exact tests for categorical variables. We used multiple regression to look for independent predictors of overall symptom burden. Data were analysed using Stata/IC 15.1.

Results

Eighty-nine patients with COPD, mean age 72.6 years, 55% male, mean FEV₁ 32% predicted, reported an average of 8.9 symptoms including 6.9 physical and 1.6 psychological symptoms. The most common physical symptoms were shortness of breath (100%) and lack of energy (80%), and the most common psychological symptoms were worrying (65%) and feeling anxious (61%). Median CMSAS total score was higher in women than men (1.34 versus 1.04, respectively; p=0.03) with more women experiencing nervousness (p=0.011) and anxiety (p=0.005). Female sex (p=0.003), HADS-Anxiety (p=0.0001), and HADS-Depression (p=0.0001) were independently associated with total CMSAS score in a multiple linear regression model and explained 63% of total CMSAS variability.

Conclusion

Very high physical and psychological symptom burden exists among patients with severe COPD. Anxiety, depression, and female sex were independently associated with increasing symptom burden. Identifying and understanding sex differences for COPD symptoms, and interventions targeting anxiety and depression may help to reduce overall symptom burden within this population.

Keywords:

• dyspnoea
• anxiety
• depression
• respiratory
• gender/sex

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Ms Jan Gesling for assistance in data collection.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.