Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers in New York City collected the data from 4,150 Americans aged 50 and older, including 492 with COPD. They analyzed that out of those, 153 had severe COPD. Scores among all COPD patients on a 35-point cognition scale declined an average of one-point between 1996 and 2002. Moreover, the analysis showed that patients with severe COPD had significantly lower scores than those without COPD.
Our findings should raise awareness that adults with severe COPD are at greater risk for developing cognitive impairment, which may make managing their COPD more challenging, and will likely further worsen their general health and quality of life, study author Dr. William W. Hung said in a news release.
According to the results, patients with severe COPD have a 22 percent increase in the difficulty they experience with daily tasks.
While this number may not appear to be of major concern on the individual level, on a population level it is roughly equivalent to nearly a quarter of severe COPD patients experiencing difficulty with basic life skills, Hung said.
In this regard, these findings have serious implications. Often patients with cognitive difficulties, if undetected and untreated, have lower adherence to their treatment and follow-up regimens, and as a consequence may deteriorate more rapidly and have worse health outcomes, he explained.
The researchers reported that periods of low oxygen levels called hypoxia may reduce cognitive ability or exacerbate illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease that have an impact on memory and attention.
Hung suggested that health-care professionals have to be aware that patients with severe COPD are at increased risk for cognitive decline and have greater challenges and needs.
