Key takeaways

  • Healthcare professionals use tools like the GOLD system and the BODE index to evaluate the stage and impact of COPD.
  • While COPD may shorten life span, advances in treatment and management are improving the outlook for those with COPD.
  • A doctor can provide personalized information based on your circumstances.

There’s no way to predict exact life expectancy, but having this progressive lung disease can shorten life span.

How much so depends on your overall health and whether you have other conditions. Doctors may use the GOLD system or BODE index to provide a more accurate assessment of a person’s outlook.

Read on to learn about how doctors assess life expectancy when someone has COPD.

Researchers over the years have come up with a way to assess the health of someone with COPD.

The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) is one of the most used systems for classifying COPD. GOLD is an international group of lung health experts who periodically produce and update guidelines for doctors to use in the care of people with COPD.

Doctors use the GOLD system to assess people with COPD in “grades” of the condition. Grading is a way to measure the severity of the condition. It uses the forced expiratory volume (FEV1), a test that determines the amount of air a person can forcefully exhale from their lungs in one second, to categorize the severity of COPD.

The most recent guidelines make FEV1 part of the assessment. Based on your FEV1 score, you receive a GOLD grade or stage as follows:

  • GOLD 1: FEV1 of 80% predicted or more
  • GOLD 2: FEV1 of 50% to 79% predicted
  • GOLD 3: FEV1 of 30% to 49% predicted
  • GOLD 4: FEV1 of less than 30% predicted

The second part of the assessment relies on symptoms such as dyspnea, or difficulty breathing, and the degree and number of acute exacerbations, which are flare-ups that may require hospitalization.

Based on these criteria, people with COPD will be in one of four groups: A, B, C, or D.

Someone with no exacerbations or one that didn’t require hospital admission in the past year would be in group A or B. This will also depend on an assessment of breathing symptoms. Those with more symptoms would be in group B, and those with fewer symptoms would be in group A.

People with at least one exacerbation that required hospitalization, or at least two exacerbations that did or didn’t require hospital admission in the past year, would be in group C or D. Those with more breathing symptoms would be in group D, and those with fewer symptoms would be in group C.

Under the new guidelines, someone labeled GOLD grade 4, group D, would have the most serious classification of COPD. This means that they will usually have a shorter life expectancy than someone with a label of GOLD grade 1, group A.

Learn more about the stages of COPD.

Another measure that uses more than just FEV1 to gauge a person’s COPD condition and outlook is the BODE index. BODE stands for:

  • body mass
  • obstruction of airflow
  • dyspnea
  • exercise capacity

BODE provides an overall picture of how COPD affects life. While the BODE index is used by some physicians, its value may be lessening as researchers learn more about the condition.

Body mass

The body mass index (BMI), which looks at body mass based on height and weight parameters, can determine if a person has underweight or overweight.

People who have COPD and a low body weight may have a lower life expectancy.

Airflow obstruction

This refers to the FEV1, as in the GOLD system.

Dyspnea

Dyspnea is the most common COPD symptom. The BODE index uses the modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) dyspnea scale to grade the severity of breathing problems.

For example, grade 0 indicates that you only get breathless during strenuous exercise. Grade 4 means that breathlessness is present when performing tasks such as getting dressed or undressed.

Exercise capacity

This means how well you’re able to tolerate exercise. It’s often measured by a test called the 6-minute walking test.

One of the key features of COPD is systemic inflammation. A blood test that checks for certain markers of inflammation may be helpful.

The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and eosinophil-to-basophil ratio in the blood test may help with assessing the severity of inflammation.

Regularly monitoring these markers may help to monitor COPD as it progresses.

As with any serious condition, probable life expectancy for people with COPD is based largely on the severity or stage of the condition, as well as factors such as whether you smoke.

In general, around half of people with end stage COPD will be alive after 2 years, according to nonprofit organization Lower Cape Fear LifeCare.

According to the American Lung Association, around 85% of deaths due to COPD occur in people over the age of 65 years.

However, it’s important to note that the outlook will be different for each person. If you’ve received a COPD diagnosis, your doctor can provide you with more accurate information about your outlook based on your individual circumstances.

Advances in treatments are also helping to improve the outlook for people with COPD. Your doctor can provide you with information about what COPD treatments are available to you.

Learn about COPD and age.

The main way of predicting life expectancy for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is to assess the severity of the condition using the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) system and the BODE index.

In general, more severe cases of COPD have a lower life expectancy. However, outlook can also depend on factors such as your overall health and whether you smoke.

Your doctor can provide more information about your outlook and any treatments that may help.