Prognostic score for predicting respiratory admissions among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in primary care: development and validation in population cohorts (Birmingham Lung Improvement Studies (BLISS))

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Source: BMJ

Original: http://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj-2025-084521.short?rss=1...

Published: 2026-03-05T02:31:08-08:00

A research team developed and tested the BLISS prognostic score to predict the risk of hospitalization for respiratory problems in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in primary care[1][2]. The score was created based on data from 1894 patients from the BLISS cohort and subsequently validated on two other groups of patients – 1749 patients from the ECLIPSE cohort and 27,340 patients from the CPRD database[1]. The final score includes six simple predictors: age, COPD score, number of hospitalizations in the previous 12 months, body mass index, presence of diabetes, and lung function[1]. The score performed well in predicting the two-year risk of respiratory intake with similar results in all three patient groups (C statistic 0.71–0.73)[1]. The BLISS score was better than the previous Bertens score, which had a lower discriminatory performance (C=0.68)[1]. The research team found the score to be reliable in different subgroups of patients with COPD[1]. The authors state that the score is now ready for practical use in clinical care, as all six variables are readily available and simple to evaluate[1].