Multidimensional analyses to assess the relations between treatment choices by physicians and patients’ characteristics: the example of COPD

Table 6 Explanation of overall variation in non-pharmacological care (other treatments and follow up) by 6 families of variables

Family	Selected variables	Adjusted R²	P value
Socio-demographics	age, weight, town, gender	0.02517	0.001
History of COPD and comorbidities	emphysema, chronic sputum production, dyspnea, history of right ventricular failure, bronchiectasis, ischemic heart disease, asthma, cough, depression, heart failure.	0.04009	0.001
Symptoms the days of visit	dyspnea (MRC), chronic bronchitis	0.05125	0.001
Lung function	FEV₁, FEV₁%, reversibility testing, FVC	0.03641	0.001
Exacerbations and smoking status	number of exacerbations, current smoking, current occupational exposure to dust or smoke	0.04385	0.001
Investigations (d. stands for done and p. for prescribed)	6MWT d., CT-scan d., echocardiography d., arterial blood gases d., scintigraphy. d., nocturnal oxymetry d., 6MWT p., arterial blood gases p., EKG d., DLCO p., fiberoptic bronchoscopy d., DLCO d., EKG p.	0.07245	0.001

The order of variables is the order of their contribution to the explanationof the variation of COPD treatments.

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