Predictors of treatment choice in patients with COPD

Study type

• Study type:
  Non-interventional study
• Scope of the study:
  Disease epidemiology

  Drug utilisation

Non-interventional study

• Non-interventional study design:
  Cohort

Study drug and medical condition

• Medical condition to be studied:
  Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Population studied

• Age groups:
  • Adult and elderly population (≥18 years)

    • Adults (18 to < 65 years)

      • Adults (18 to < 46 years)
      • Adults (46 to < 65 years)
    • Elderly (≥ 65 years)

      • Adults (65 to < 75 years)
      • Adults (75 to < 85 years)
      • Adults (85 years and over)
• Estimated number of subjects:
  20154

Study design details

• Main study objective:
  To examine the changes in prescriptions patterns over time, in order to determine the potential driving factors behind GP prescribing for newly diagnosed COPD patients.
• Outcomes:
  Primary outcome will identify predictors of GP prescribing behaviour when treating newly diagnosed COPD patients with their first pharmacological therapy. It will assess the odds of being prescribed:• any initial COPD therapy vs. • no COPD therapy A further analysis will be conduted in regard to the odds of being prescribed: • maintenance therapy versus • short-acting agents/no therapy, To obtain the data required for exploring the primary outcomes, exploratories will be conducted to investigate the distribution of COPD pharmacological therapy in the main potential predictors (see appendix for full list). Results will be summarised and tested using chi-square to identify whether variation occurs among the categories.
• Data analysis plan:
  Baseline characterisation of patients, summary statistics as a complete dataset and by treatment groups. Logistic regression analysis for all patients receiving first COPD therapy.Evaluate how the potential predictors outlined above could affect the choice of initial COPD therapy in terms of:a. Odds of being prescribed any initial COPD therapy vs. no therapyb. Odds of receiving initial COPD maintenance therapy vs. short-acting agents/no therapy