Assessment of health status using CAT scores in COPD patients from Italy: the MISTRAL study

Introduction: The COPD Assessment Test (CAT) is a validated questionnaire for evaluating COPD impact on health status. The MISTRAL study evaluated the pharmacological management in Italian patients with COPD, grouped in 2 cohorts based on exacerbation history (frequent exacerbators [FEs], ≥2 exacerbations; non-frequent exacerbators [NFEs], ≤1 exacerbation). Methods: MISTRAL was a prospective cohort, observational study. Health status in terms of CAT scores and % of patients with CAT scores Results: At baseline, the evaluable population included 942 NFEs and 526 FEs. At all visits, FEs had significantly higher CAT scores and % of patients with CAT score ≥10 vs NFEs (Table). The % of patients with CAT score ≥10 in both cohorts reduced over the study period, with a higher reduction in FEs (Table). At all visits, patients with CAT score ≥10 had greater airflow obstruction, more exacerbations and were more often prescribed ICS (P Conclusions: Health status was significantly impaired in FEs compared with NFEs. CAT score improved only by a small degree in both cohorts, which was possibly due to high degree of non-adherence (~50%) to 2011 GOLD recommendations. Patients with CAT score ≥10 had poorer lung function and more exacerbations than those with CAT score