Among patients with COPD, at least 50% reported that the disease impacts their daily life and emotional health, according to survey results published in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation.

Additionally, less than half of patients reported providing a great level of detail on their symptoms during discussions with their health care providers (HCPs), according to researchers.

"It remains important for health care providers to explain the importance of the various COPD therapies and their correct use," David M. Mannino, MD, FCCP, FERS, chief medical officer and co-founder of the COPD Foundation, told Healio. "Of course, there [also] remains a need for better therapies and better means of administering them that are less difficult than our current therapies."

Using data from Phreesia's PatientInsights 28-question quantitative survey offered in January 2025, Mannino and colleagues evaluated responses from 1,615 patients (mean age, 65 years; 59% women; 82% white) with COPD who answered all questions to learn more about symptoms, treatment journeys and potential patient-HCP communication gaps.

"Periodically, it is important to understand what is happening in the care of COPD patients," Mannino said. "The treatment of COPD keeps changing, as well as the health care environment, so it is important to understand what is currently happening."

Survey Findings

In a set of 1,981 patients, the study highlighted that 39% reported having COPD symptoms for more than 7 years. When asked about the frequency of symptoms over a 30-day period, a quarter of 1,702 patients said they experienced symptoms every day. Symptoms reported as the most impactful included:

• Dyspnea (33% of n = 1,773)

• Fatigue (19%)

• Cough (16%)

• Phlegm (13%)

Further, the impact of COPD on daily life was moderate to great for 64% of 1,773 patients, and the impact of COPD on emotional health reached this level for 50% of 1,792 patients, according to the study. A smaller proportion of patients (36% of n = 1,237) said that COPD impacted their ability to work, namely losing their job (15%) or having to take frequent breaks (14%).

Communication Gaps

Mannino told Healio one notable disappointing finding was that 55% of patients reported providing some, little or no detail, as opposed to great detail, on their symptoms when speaking with their HCPs. Along with this finding, understanding of COPD was limited or nonexistent per responses from 35% of 1,718 patients.

"Patients would like to understand more about their disease. Clinicians are typically pressed for time but are able to answer all of their questions," Mannino said.

Treatment Patterns

In terms of treatment, 339 patients had not tried or were currently not on any maintenance medications, and the study noted that "COPD was not severe enough" and "HCP did not recommend it" were the top reasons behind this characteristic (each 27%).

Switching to the cohort of patients who had tried maintenance medications, researchers found that the primary type tried was rescue inhalers, and willingness to try another therapy was commonly reported (77%).

When asked about inhaler ease of use, the study pointed out that more patients reported agreement with a statement expressing that it is "hard to breathe fast/hard enough with some inhaler doses" (28%) over statements expressing difficulty coordinating breathing with pushing the inhaler button (14%) or understanding instructions (13%).

Lastly, researchers observed that a greater proportion of patients on maintenance medications in the past 3 months (n = 1,319) did not vs. did miss a dose (65% vs. 35%), and among those who did, "I simply forgot to take it" was the most common reason (61%; n = 449).

"I suspect future studies will be similar to this one, with the hope that in the interim, clinicians will do a better job of educating patients and therapies may also change," Mannino told Healio.

Sources/Disclosures

Source:
Mannino DM, et al. Chronic Obstr Pulm Dis. 2025;doi:10.15326/jcopdf.2025.0616.

Disclosures:
Mannino reports being a consultant for AstraZeneca, the COPD Foundation, Genentech, GSK and Regeneron, and receiving royalties from UpToDate. Please see the study for all other authors' relevant financial disclosures.

Topics: COPD, survey, pulmonary symptoms, health care provider, communication, daily COPD