Discordance between a patient completed COPD Assessment test (CAT) and a CAT completed by patient with physician assistance

Introduction: COPD Assessment Test (CAT) is a patient-completed questionnaire widely used to quantify COPD impact.Unfortunately, completion of the questionnaire by the elderly patients alone is often limited due to multiple reasons. Aim: Assessment of concordance between the perception of symptoms severity directly by patients and indirectly by patients with explanatory assistance of their pulmonologists. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive, multicenter study conducted in out-patients. Patients’ attitudes are represented by patient-completed CAT score (step 1) in the waiting room. The CAT score was re-evaluated following question clarification by a physician (step 2). Additionally, Modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) dyspnea scale was used as well. Results: A total of 382 COPD consecutive pts were included in this study (74%males, 68 years, FEV1 49.7%) by physicians in out-patient clinics. The mMRC dyspnea scale directly reported by COPD patients and mMRC dyspnea scale assessed with physician assistance did not differ. Nevertheless, CAT scores self-reported by patients (median16.0, mean16.4) were significantly (p Conclusions: Minor physician assistance in CAT questionnaire evaluations had tendency to underestimate the symptoms and impact of disease to the patient. Similar trend was not visible in mMRC dyspnea scale.