The Timed Up and Go test predicts frailty in patients with COPD

The Timed Up and Go (TUG) is a global measure of mobility and has the ability to detect frail individuals. Frail patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are usually undiagnosed. We hypothesised that the TUG would identify frail patients with COPD. Frailty was assessed in 520 patients diagnosed with COPD and 150 controls using a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment questionnaire and frailty index (FI) was derived. The TUG was used to assess physical mobility. All participants were assessed for lung function and body composition. A ROC curve was used to identify how well TUG discriminates between frail and non-frail patients with COPD. The patients with COPD and controls were similar in age, sex and BMI but the patients with COPD were more frail, mean ± SD FI 0.16 ± 0.08 than controls 0.05 ± 0.03, P < 0.001. Frail patients with COPD had a greater TUG time (11.55 ± 4.03 s) compared to non-frail patients (9.2 ± 1.6 sec), after controlling for age and lung function (F = 15.94, P < 0.001), and both were greater than the controls (8.3 ± 1.2 sec), P < 0.001. The TUG discriminated between frail and non-frail patients with COPD with an area under the curve of 72 (95% CI: 67–76), and a diagnostic odds ratio of 2.67 (95% CI:1.5–4.6), P < 0.001. The TUG showed the ability to discriminate between frail and non-frail patients with COPD, independent of age and severity of the airflow obstruction. The TUG is a simple, easy and quick measure that could be easily applied in restricted settings to screen for frailty in COPD.