Physician-estimated disease severity in patients with chronic heart or lung disease: a cross-sectional analysis

Table 1 Baseline physician responses on six disease severity questions – overall and by target disease and enrollment site.

Physician global and specific questions regarding severity of patient's disease
	Severity ¹	Hospitalization ²	Death ³	Medications ⁴	Tests ⁵	Specialists ⁶
Overall	3.0	28%	15%	97%	84%	50%
Asthma	3.4	20%	9%	98%	65%	24%
CAD/CHF	3.0	31%	17%	98%	96%	78%
COPD	2.8	31%	17%	96%	83%	36%
Public Hospital	3.1	32%	16%	97%	73%	34%
Veterans Hospital	3.0	25%	14%	97%	94%	67%

¹Compared to other patients that you see with <target disease>, how serious is this patient's condition (1 = much worse, ...5 = much better)?
²What is the chance (to the nearest 10%) that the patient will be hospitalized for <target disease> in the next 2 years?
³What is the chance (to the nearest 10%) that the patient will die, directly or indirectly due to <target disease>, in the next 2 years?
⁴Is this patient on medication(s) for his/her <target disease> (1 = yes, 0 = no)?
⁵As far as you know, has the patient had laboratory tests or procedures ordered because of his/her <target disease> (1 = yes, 0 = no)?
⁶As far as you know, has this patient seen a specialist for his/her <target disease> (1 = yes, 0 = no)?

ISSN: 1477-7525