Depression Linked to Increased Clinical Burden, Hospitalization Risk in COPD

Depression is linked to an increased clinical burden in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to data presented at the CHEST Annual Meeting 2019 held October 19 to 23, in New Orleans, Louisiana. A common comorbidity in COPD, depression may complicate treatment trajectories.

Parul Chandrika, MBBS, of East Carolina University, Brody School of Medicine in Greenville, North Carolina, and colleagues compared patients with COPD age ≥40 years with and without depression. Data was drawn from the National Inpatient Sample database from 2016. ICD-10 codes J40 to J44 identified COPD-related hospitalization, and demographics, comorbidities, and length of stay were also considered in univariate and multivariate regression analyses.

Patients with depression had significantly higher rates of COPD-related hospitalization (P <.001), as well as longer hospital stays (P <.001).

Furthermore, depression in patients with COPD was associated with an increased risk for COPD-related hospitalization (CI, 1.20-1.24, P <.001), even after adjusting for age, gender, race, smoking habit, obesity, sleep apnea, pulmonary circulation disorder, insurance status, and median household income (CI, 1.09-1.12, P <.001).

The researchers called for future studies to examine the role of effective management of depressive symptoms in relation to COPD-related hospitalization. Their findings emphasize the potential of depression to elevate the clinical burden of COPD beyond traditional risk factors and comorbidities.

Reference

Chandrika P, Chaturvedi A, Madipally DJ, Chaudhary S, Zuwallack R. Depression associates with increased risk of COPD-related hospitalizations: Insights from National Inpatient Sample. Presented at: CHEST Annual Meeting 2019; October 19-23, 2019; New Orleans, LA. Abstract 469.