Body Mass Index and Its Implication on GOLD Staging in COPD Patients Accessing Healthcare in a Tertiary Hospital in Ilorin, Nigeria

Abstract

Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) who have low Body Mass Index (BMI) are usually misdiagnosed and have a low survival rate. This research was to investigate the connection between BMI and COPD patients' Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stage. At the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital's chest clinic and medical out-patient division, 184 COPD patients were enrolled in a cross-sectional observational study between January 1 and June 30, 2022. To categorize the level of blockage in COPD patients, pulmonary function and GOLD staging are employed. All participants' BMIs were calculated. The anticipated forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1%) post-bronchodilator in COPD patients was correlated with BMI and obstruction severity. There were 68 women and 116 men (63.04%) in total. The patients were 56.95 years old on average (SD± 9.376). Based on GOLD staging, the anticipated post bronchodilator FEV1% classified the COPD patients into four groups. Of the 184 individuals in the study, 74 (40.2%) were impacted by the first stage, followed by 62 (33.7%), 34 (18.5%), and 14 (7.6%) in the second stage. We found a negative association between BMI and post-FEV1% predicted using the Pearson correlation test (R = - 0.196, P 0.05). When the GOLD stage and BMI were looked at tandem, a favorable relationship between both was found (R = 0.298, p = 0.05). The patients' BMI increased as the disease progressed, according to a one-way ANOVA, and this link was statistically significant (F = 487.79, p=5.632e-7).BMI and the degree of airway blockage were discovered to be closely related in COPD patients.