Lung function tests relate to how well our lungs are working and measure such things as how much air our lungs can hold and how easily we can breathe in and out. All individuals have some decline in their lung function over time, particularly in later life and people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) lose lung function faster than the general population. Low lung function and accelerated loss of lung function have been linked to cardiovascular disease in the general population. No studies have looked at this relationship in people with COPD. Using statistical models, we will investigate whether COPD patients who lose lung function faster are more likely to have cardiovascular disease compared to COPD patients who lose lung function at a slower rate.
People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have a faster lung function decline compared to the general population. Accelerated lung function decline has been associated with mortality, and more recently with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the general population. Specifically, accelerated lung function decline was associated with incident heart failure, stroke, death, and hospitalisations from heart failure. CVD is a common comorbidity of COPD and thus it is important to understand how lung function decline influences risk of incident cardiovascular disease in a population of COPD patients. Using survival analyses we will investigate rate of incident CVD in relation to rapid lung function decline over a 15 year period in a primary care population of COPD patients.
Rate of incident cardiovascular disease including: stroke, heart failure (HF), myocardial infarction (MI), angina, atrial fibrillation (AF), and ischemic heart disease (IHD). We will include these CVD subtypes in order to pick up the whole spectrum of CVD.
Our outcome will primarily be a composite CVD variable (which includes HF, MI, stroke, angina, AF, IHD) and secondary outcomes will consist of HF, MI, stroke, angina, AF, and IHD individually.
Jennifer Quint - Chief Investigator - Imperial College London
Hannah Whittaker - Corresponding Applicant - Imperial College London
Ann Morgan - Collaborator - Imperial College London
Debbie Jarvis - Collaborator - Imperial College London
Steven Kiddle - Collaborator - AstraZeneca Ltd - UK Headquarters
HES Admitted Patient Care;ONS Death Registration Data;Patient Level Index of Multiple Deprivation