The Impact of Screening Tools on Diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Primary Care

BackgroundChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is frequently misdiagnosed or undiagnosed, which can delay disease management interventions.PurposeThe Screening, Evaluating and Assessing Rate CHanges of diagnosing respiratory conditions in primary care 1 (SEARCH1) study assessed whether screening using the COPD Population Screener (COPD-PS) questionnaire to detect COPD risk factors and symptoms, with or without a handheld spirometer (copd-6) to detect airflow limitation, can increase yields of COPD diagnosis and respiratory-related clinician actions in primary care.DesignA prospective, multi-center, pragmatic, comparative-effectiveness, cluster-randomized study conducted from September 2010 to October 2011 (data analyzed from December 2011 to January 2013).ParticipantsMen and women aged ≥40 years visiting their participating primary care practice for any reason.InterventionPractices were randomized to three study arms: COPD-PS + copd-6, COPD-PS alone, and usual care (no interventions). No practices received any specific education about COPD or its diagnosis.Main outcome measuresThe primary endpoint was yield of new clinical COPD diagnosis; the secondary endpoint was yield of respiratory-related clinician actions.ResultsOf 9,704 patients enrolled, 8,770 had no prior COPD diagnosis and were included in endpoint analyses. Both interventions significantly increased COPD diagnostic yield over 8 weeks. Compared with a mean yield of 0.49% (0.13%) (controls), yields were 1.07% (0.20%) (OR=2.20, 95% CI=1.26, 3.84, p=0.006) and 1.16% (0.22%) (OR=2.38, 95% CI=1.38, 4.13, p=0.002) for COPD-PS and COPD-PS+copd-6 study arms, respectively. Respiratory-related clinician actions were not significantly different across study arms.ConclusionsOffice-based assessment can significantly increase COPD diagnosis by primary care physicians. Future trials must evaluate whether screening can improve outcomes for patients with COPD.