Proactive palliative care for patients with COPD (PROLONG): a pragmatic cluster controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have poor quality of life. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of proactive palliative care on the well-being of these patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial is registered with the Netherlands Trial Register, NTR4037. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A pragmatic cluster controlled trial (quasi-experimental design) was performed with hospitals as cluster (three intervention and three control) and a pretrial assessment was performed. Hospitals were selected for the intervention group based on the presence of a specialized palliative care team (SPCT). To control for confounders, a pretrial assessment was performed in which hospitals were compared on baseline characteristics. Patients with COPD with poor prognosis were recruited during hospitalization for acute exacerbation. All patients received usual care while patients in the intervention group received additional proactive palliative care in monthly meetings with an SPCT. Our primary outcome was change in quality of life score after 3 months, which was measured using the St George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ). Secondary outcomes were, among others, quality of life at 6, 9 and 12 months; readmissions: survival; and having made advance care planning (ACP) choices. All analyses were performed following the principle of intention to treat. RESULTS: During the year 2014, 228 patients (90 intervention and 138 control) were recruited and at 3 months, 163 patients (67 intervention and 96 control) completed the SGRQ. There was no significant difference in change scores of the SGRQ total at 3 months between groups (-0.79 [95% CI, -4.61 to 3.34], p=0.70). However, patients who received proactive palliative care experienced less impact of their COPD (SGRQ impact subscale) at 6 months (-6.22 [-11.73 to -0.71], p=0.04) and had more often made ACP choices (adjusted odds ratio 3.26 [1.49-7.14], p=0.003). Other secondary outcomes were not significantly different. CONCLUSION: Proactive palliative care did not improve the overall quality of life of patients with COPD. However, patients more often made ACP choices which may lead to better quality of care toward the end of life.

Development of the ProPal-COPD tool to identify patients with COPD for proactive palliative care.

BACKGROUND: Our objective was to develop a tool to identify patients with COPD for proactive palliative care. Since palliative care needs increase during the disease course of COPD, the prediction of mortality within 1 year, measured during hospitalizations for acute exacerbation COPD (AECOPD), was used as a proxy for the need of proactive palliative care. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients were recruited from three general hospitals in the Netherlands in 2014. Data of 11 potential predictors, a priori selected based on literature, were collected during hospitalization for AECOPD. After 1 year, the medical files were explored for the date of death. An optimal prediction model was assessed by Lasso logistic regression, with 20-fold cross-validation for optimal shrinkage. Missing data were handled using complete case analysis. RESULTS: Of 174 patients, 155 patients were included; of those 30 (19.4%) died within 1 year. The optimal prediction model was internally validated and had good discriminating power (AUC =0.82, 95% CI 0.81-0.82). This model relied on the following seven predictors: the surprise question, Medical Research Council dyspnea questionnaire (MRC dyspnea), Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ), FEV1% of predicted value, body mass index, previous hospitalizations for AECOPD and specific comorbidities. To ensure minimal miss out of patients in need of proactive palliative care, we proposed a cutoff in the model that prioritized sensitivity over specificity (0.90 over 0.73, respectively). Our model (ProPal-COPD tool) was a stronger predictor of mortality within 1 year than the CODEX (comorbidity, age, obstruction, dyspnea, and previous severe exacerbations) index. CONCLUSION: The ProPal-COPD tool is a promising multivariable prediction tool to identify patients with COPD for proactive palliative care.

The view of pulmonologists on palliative care for patients with COPD: a survey study.

INTRODUCTION: Early palliative care is not a common practice for patients with COPD. Important barriers are the identification of patients for palliative care and the organization of such care in this patient group. OBJECTIVE: Pulmonologists have a central role in providing good quality palliative care for patients with COPD. To guide future research and develop services, their view on palliative care for these patients was explored. METHODS: A survey study was performed by the members of the Netherlands Association of Physicians for Lung Diseases and Tuberculosis. RESULTS: The 256 respondents (31.8%) covered 85.9% of the hospital organizations in the Netherlands. Most pulmonologists (92.2%) indicated to distinguish a palliative phase in the COPD trajectory, but there was no consensus about the different criteria used for its identification. Aspects of palliative care in COPD considered important were advance care planning conversation (82%), communication between pulmonologist and general practitioner (77%), and identification of the palliative phase (75.8%), while the latter was considered the most important aspect for improvement (67.6%). Pulmonologists indicated to prefer organizing palliative care for hospitalized patients with COPD themselves (55.5%), while 30.9% indicated to prefer cooperation with a specialized palliative care team (SPCT). In the ambulatory setting, a multidisciplinary cooperation between pulmonologist, general practitioner, and a respiratory nurse specialist was preferred (71.1%). CONCLUSION: To encourage pulmonologists to timely initiate palliative care in COPD, we recommend to conduct further research into more specific identification criteria. Furthermore, pulmonologists should improve their skills of palliative care, and the members of the SPCT should be better informed about the management of COPD to improve care during hospitalization. Communication between pulmonologist and general practitioner should be emphasized in training to improve palliative care in the ambulatory setting.