Impact of coexistence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cognitive impairment on mortality and hospitalization of elderly people

Evaluation of: Chang SS, Chen S, McAvay GJ, Tinetti ME. Effect of coexisting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cognitive impairment on health outcomes in older adults. J. Am. Geriatr. Soc. 60(10), 1839–1846 (2012). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cognitive impairment are very common chronic conditions in the elderly. Chang et al. described the effect of coexisting COPD and cognitive decline on death and hospitalizations in a large cohort of subjects aged 65–80 years over a 3-year period, demonstrating an additive, but not a synergistic, effect. The selection of the ‘better patients’ could account for underestimation of the effect of the interaction between COPD and cognitive impairment on health outcomes. Further studies are needed to verify whether cognitive impairment has a different prognostic impact depending upon whether it represents a distinct condition coexisting with, or a complication of, COPD.