Clinical and Quality of Life Differences in Patients with COPD With and Without a Background of Hospitalization in the Last Year

Introduction: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. An upward trend is estimated by 2030. One of the causes of mortality is the exacerbations of symptoms that result in hospitalizations. These hospitalizations reduce the quality of life, limit performance in daily life, and increase the costs for the health system and the patient. Objective: This study aimed to determine the differences between hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients with a medical diagnosis of COPD, considering some sociodemographic and clinical variables, and survival rates. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, which included patients diagnosed with COPD who initiated pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) from January to September 2018. The patients were divided into two groups: patients with one or more exacerbations that led to the hospitalization (COPD-H) and patients without hospitalizations in the last year (COPD-NH). Results: There were 128 participants (78 males and 50 females), with a mean age of 71.10 +/-(9.34) in the COPD-H group and 71.30 +/-( 8.91) in the COPD-NH group. When comparing both groups, COPD-NH had a higher socioeconomic status (p=0.041), reporting a higher FEV1 44.71 +/-(14.97), p=0.047, and comorbidities according to the COTE index (p<0.001). Conclusions: The patients with the highest number of hospitalizations belonged to a lower socioeconomic stratum and had a higher number of comorbidities. Therefore, it is necessary to identify these factors at the beginning of PR.