. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Oct 1.

Published in final edited form as: J Am Geriatr Soc. 2016 Aug 22;64(10):2042–2050. doi: 10.1111/jgs.14290

Table 5.

Predicted probability of moderate-to-severe dyspnea, according to four key impairments ^a

Impairments	Predicted Probability^b Moderate-to-Severe Dyspnea ^c
All four impairments absent	0.11
FEV₁<LLN	0.29
+ LVEF<45%	0.50
+ Single chair stand (unable)	0.76
+ Depressive symptoms (CES-D ≥16)	0.92

Abbreviations: ATS (American Thoracic Society), CES-D (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), FEV₁ (forced expiratory volume in 1-second), LLN (lower limit of normal), LVEF (left ventricular ejection fraction).

The four key impairments commonly coexist in patients with multimorbidity, especially in an older age group and complex diseases such as COPD and heart failure.^3,8,43

From a logistic regression model with four key impairments reported in a clinically meaningful sequence, proceeding from none to all four impairments being present. The predicted probabilities represent the means of ten imputation samples (see Methods).

Grade ≥2 on ATS Adult Questionnaire.