A new patient-completed instrument designed to help doctors and patients assess health status in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), one of the most widely prevalent respiratory diseases, has been introduced to medical professionals in Sri Lanka by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the company that funded its development.

The COPD Assessment Test (CAT), is a validated, short and simple questionnaire for use in routine clinical practice, enabling both doctor and patient to monitor the progress made in the management of the disease which is projected to become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020.

The CAT questionnaire is available free of charge at www.CATestonline.org for use in clinical practice.
A press release from GSK stated that the questionnaire comprises of eight questions that cover a broad range of effects of COPD on a patient’s health. A simple scoring methodology facilitates a quick assessment of the disease’s impact on the individual patient’s lifestyle.

Each question offers a scoring range of 0 to 5, with the higher end indicating a higher impact of COPD on the patient’s wellbeing. The CAT scoring range of 0 to 40 for the total score of all eight questions encompasses four impact levels - Low, Medium, High and Very high.