Research finds link between frail COPD patients and risk of disability and death
COPD patients with frail health and lung function have a higher risk of disability and mortality within 3-5 years, reveals a prospective cohort study of community-dwelling individuals. The study conducted by a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore found a close link between frailty and chance of morbidity in COPD patients. Senior author of the study, Tze Pin Ng, highlighted that frailty is a widely recognized geriartic syndrome characterized by multidimensional functional decline in bio-psycho-social factors and “is associated with functional disability and mortality”. The team said that they found an 86 percent increased risk for COPD patients with frailty among the 2804 participants they had analysed from the Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Study.