Prognostic assessment of mortality and hospitalizations of outpatients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Usefulness of the CODEX index

Abstract Objectives To validate the CODEX index in outpatients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Patients and methods We studied all patients with COPD treated in a chronic respiratory disease unit. We calculated the BODEX and CODEX indices and their relationship with mortality, hospitalisations or both and performed an analysis by number of events (mortality and/or readmissions), using the Cox proportional hazards analysis. Results We included 80 patients (90% men) with a mean age of 73.4 years. The mean follow-up was 656 days, with an interquartile range (25–75%) of 417–642 days. Seventeen patients died (21%) and 57 (71.3%) required hospitalization for COPD. The CODEX index was significantly related to mortality ( p p p p  = .17) but was associated with hospitalization ( p p p p p p Conclusions Both the CODEX and BODEX indices are useful for predicting hospitalisations, although the prognostic ability of the CODEX index is greater than that of the BODEX index, both for mortality and hospitalisations.