Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Symptom Cluster Composition, Associated Factors, and Methodologies: A Systematic Review

This systematic review details symptom clusters, their compositions, and associated factors and appraises the methodologies of studies that reported symptom clusters in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Ten studies were eligible for inclusion in this study. Four common symptom clusters were identified. Two theoretical frameworks, four statistical methods, and various symptom assessment tools were used to identify symptom clusters. Factors associated with symptom clusters included demographic, clinical, and biological factors. No studies examined the subjective experiences of symptom clusters. Overall, inconsistencies were identified in the composition of symptom clusters across studies. This may be due to variations in study design, assessment tools, and statistical methods. Future studies should attempt to arrive at a common definition, especially that is theoretically derived, for symptom clusters, standardize the criteria for symptoms for inclusion in the clusters, and focus on patients’ subjective experience to inform which clusters are clinically relevant.