Several screening tools and tests are used for COPD screening, that includes pulmonary tests like Spirometer, Flow Meter, Vo2Max exercise test, and simple Spo2 value.
COPD risks increase significantly if you are living in an industrial area with significant pollution, if you are a smoker, or if you have compromised immunity, where lungs are often infected. Just like any chronic disease, COPD can be managed well and a patient can have a better quality of life if detected and screened early.
Mostly it is hard for someone to know the COPD risks, and often this is detected at a very late stage, where other co-morbidities like heart failure increase significantly.
This is a simple COPD screening questionnaire-based test to assess your potential risk of COPD. The original research is published :
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6661785_Development_of_a_Population-Based_Screening_Questionnaire_for_COPD
[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954611105000831
This instrument is a hybrid tool, using the instruments as published above.
Sensitivity and Specificity
The sensitivity of the instrument is 80%, whereas the specificity is 60%. This means that if you already have traits of COPD, then this instrument can detect that with 80% likelihood. However, if you do not have COPD, or traits of it, the likelihood of this tool to show COPD risk is about 60%. Therefore, if the tool shows a high risk of COPD, you are advised to visit a pulmonologist and get yourself thoroughly checked.
Disclaimer
This instrument is just for screening the early COPD risk to enable you to visit your pulmonologist at an early stage. This instrument is a hypersensitive instrument and is not intended to diagnose any medical conditions. Lyfas or Acculi Labs is not responsible for any harm arising from using this questionnaire-based tool. In case the tool shows you at a high risk of COPD, you must visit your nearest pulmonologist for a full screening.
