Patients who report experiencing breathing difficulties during a hospital stay face a dramatically increased risk of death, according to a major new study from Harvard Medical School.
The Alarming Link Between Breathlessness and Mortality
The research, published in the ERJ Open Research journal, discovered that individuals suffering from the most serious forms of breathlessness were up to six times more likely to die compared to patients without such symptoms. The medical term for this troubling sensation is dyspnoea, a condition affecting as many as one in ten people admitted to hospital.
Associate Professor Robert Banzett, who led the study from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, explained the severity of the symptom. "The sensation of dyspnoea, or breathing discomfort, is a really unpleasant symptom. Some people experience it as feeling starved of air or suffocated," he said.
A Simple Assessment That Predicts Risk
The investigation involved nursing staff who asked nearly 10,000 patients to rate their shortness of breath on a scale from zero to ten, twice daily. This approach mirrored the standard protocols already used for measuring pain levels in hospitals across the UK.
While a patient's reported pain scores did not indicate higher death rates, their breathlessness ratings proved to be highly predictive. Crucially, the study found that a quarter of patients who experienced breathlessness even while at rest upon discharge died within six months.
A Call for Change in Hospital Routine
Professor Banzett was quick to offer reassurance, stating, "It is important to note that dyspnoea is not a death sentence – even in the highest risk groups, 94% of patients survive hospitalisation, and 70% survive at least two years."
However, he emphasised the critical value of this simple check. "Knowing which patients are at risk with a simple, fast, and inexpensive assessment should allow better individualised care," he said. The research team strongly believes that routinely asking patients to rate their breathlessness will help healthcare professionals direct attention where it is most urgently needed and improve the management of this often-frightening symptom.
