For patients at risk for developing COPD, underweight and severe obesity are correlated with reduced lung function, according to a study published in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. However, slight obesity acted as a protective factor for people at risk for COPD and those with preserved ratio impaired spirometry (PRISm). In a cross-sectional study, participants (N=32,033) were divided into two groups according to COPD Screening Questionnaire (COPD-SQ) scores and three groups based on lung function. In those at risk for
COPD, patients with overweight (0.33 L; 95% CI, 0.27-0.38) and obesity (0.31 L; 95% CI, 0.22-0.39) had better FEV1 values than those in the normal BMI group. Compared with participants of normal weight, people with PRISm and those who were underweight had a lower FEV1 (-0.56 L; 95% CI, -0.86 to -0.26) and FVC (-0.33 L; 95% CI, -0.55 to -0.11). Also compared with participants of normal weight, those with obesity had a higher FEV1 (0.22 L; 95% CI,
0.02-0.42) and FVC (0.16 L; 95% CI, 0.02-0.30).
Severe COPD & Comorbidities Tied to Disability Retirement
Patients with markers of severe COPD, comorbidities, and social vulnerability are more likely to initiate disability retirement, according to a study published in the International Journal of Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Peter Ascanius Jacobsen, MD, and colleagues examined disability retirement in patients with COPD 3 years after the first-ever acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD). They conducted a retrospective, registry-based, follow-up cohort study of patients (N=4,032) active in the workforce and admitted to the hospital for the first time during 1999-2017 with AECOPD. Comorbidities, inhaled medication use, and sociodemographic were also analyzed. Among the 17.2% of patients who experienced disability retirement from the workforce, factors linked with disability retirement were older age, number of comorbidities, living alone, depression, triple inhalation therapy, emphysema, cardiac disease, and inhaled corticosteroid treatment.
