Table 6

Anxiety and COPD-related health outcomes: potential mediation by disease severity

Outcome measureChange in each outcome for anxious vs non-anxious*
Multivariable adjusted*Multivariable adjusted + COPD severity†
Physical health status (points)−4.66 (−6.44 to −2.89)−2.61 (−4.12 to −1.10)
p<0.0001p=0.0007
Disease-specific HRQL (points)3.31 (2.62 to 4.00)2.39 (1.83 to 2.94)
p<0.0001p<0.00001
Distance walked in 6 min (feet)−66.3 (−127.3 to −5.36)8.1 (−38.4 to 54.6)
p=0.033p=0.73
Risk of self-reported physical functional limitationsOR 2.41 (1.71 to 3.41)OR 1.99 (1.34 to 2.95)
p<0.0001p=0.0007
Longitudinal risk of COPD exacerbationHR 1.39 (1.007 to 1.90)HR 1.052 (0.76 to 1.45)
p=0.045p=0.76
  • Multivariable analysis adjusted for age, sex, race, educational attainment, household income and smoking history.

  • * This column summarises multivariable results from tables 4 and 5 for comparison with severity-adjusted results.

  • Models also include both COPD severity score and BODE index as measures of COPD severity.

  • COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; HRQL, health-related quality of life.