Dementia as a comorbidity is found to be strongly linked to increased risk of long hospital stay and deaths in COPD patients, suggests a recent research by a team of scientists at  the School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, and Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK. The researchers analysed  576,381 patients among which 35,372 (6.1%) had co-existent dementia. The team also recorded 6,413 deaths among the dementia-COPD patients of which the odds of inpatient death were significantly greater in younger patients with dementia. The finding has stressed the need for identifying pre-existing dementia in patients with a COPD exacerbation and deploying pre-emptive strategies such as clear treatment escalation plans.