What is life expectancy after a diagnosis of stage one COPD?
Answers
Stage I COPD is also known as mild, or early, COPD. There can be quite a lot of variation in how quickly a person’s COPD worsens, but if a person stops smoking and gets good medical treatment, it usually takes years for COPD to progress to more advanced stages.
Because of this, the life expectancy of a person with Stage I COPD is mainly affected by other factors, such as age, other chronic illnesses, and overall health status.
In general, research studies have found that using stage of COPD by itself is not a very accurate way to predict life expectancy or mortality. Instead, doctors can make better predictions when they incorporate additional information; one popular model (known as BODE) assigns points based on FEV1, body-mass index, distance a person can walk in 6 minutes, and how short of breath the person usually feels.
Still, one group of researchers recently did try to address this very question of life expectancy by stage of COPD. They concluded that for otherwise healthy 65-year-old men with Stage I COPD, life expectancy ranges from 14 to 18 years, depending on whether the person was a current, former, or never smoker. For otherwise healthy 65-year-old women with Stage I COPD, life expectancy ranges from 17.2 to 20.5 years. These Stage 1 life expectancies are only very slightly shorter than for "normal" people without COPD.
Thanks however my original inquiry was about a 89 year old being diagnosed with stage II that also has anxiety and consequently hypertension. Plus what I'm really trying to find out is what to expect next since I'm trying to plan for the future. If it is unique for each individual then I'll be satisfied with that answer.
Ok, this is interesting but what about me, I am 42 in stage 2 and still am fighting to lessen and give up smoking...What would be my life expectation? 7 years because I'm in stage 2 and still not kicked the habit? Just thinking like that drives me insane... I'm afraid to go see a lung docter and have a X-ray, I am sooo darn afraid I have to leave my beautifull home on the second floor, leave the city I live in because of the poor air quality :-(
To the 42 yr. old...please try to quit smoking, no matter what! I am 52 and have been smoke free for 2 mos., only because I am seeing my beloved mother die before my eyes from COPD. She is 77 and was diagnosed about 5 yrs ago with COPD...no particular "stage". She continued to smoke for about a year until she could physically, no longer do so. Every two weeks she was at the doctor's office, getting steroids and antibiotics. If only she would have quit smoking at the time of diagnosis, she wouldn't already be at Stage 4. She is now at home, on oxygen around the clock, steroids every day, breathing treatments with a nebulizer every 2 hours, can only walk to her bathroom and back to bed and struggles for every breath. She is always in a state of panic, trying to breathe. It breaks my heart to see what she is going through, but I won't let her die in vain. It took a while to quit smoking, sine I was a smoker for 25 yrs., but I did it and you can too! Think of them as the enemy, instead of a comforting friend...they will kill you. :(
