The COPD Assessment Test measures how much the disease is actually costing a patient’s daily life, through eight questions on cough, phlegm, tightness, breathlessness, activity, confidence, sleep and energy. Each scores zero to five for a total up to forty, where ten marks the threshold between low and meaningful impact. Spirometry grades the lungs, CAT grades the life.
Your visual report appears here
Fill in the form and press Calculate. You will get your number, an interpretation chip, and a personalized chart pack drawn instantly in your browser.
- Risk spectrum with your position marked
- Reference ranges from the original publication
- Shareable link, nothing stored
Scientific references
Two patients can share the same FEV1 and live entirely different lives, one gardening daily, the other housebound. Spirometry cannot see that difference, which is why the COPD Assessment Test was built in 2009, to quantify impact directly from the patient’s side. It now anchors the symptom half of the GOLD classification system alongside exacerbation history.
The Eight Questions
Cough, phlegm, chest tightness and breathlessness climbing hills cover the airways. Activity limits at home, confidence leaving the house, sleep quality and energy cover the consequences. Each is marked on a zero to five scale between two statements, never coughing against coughing all the time, and the eight total into a score out of forty.
The Bands That Drive Treatment
Below ten means low impact, ten to twenty medium, twenty one to thirty high, and above thirty very high. In GOLD’s ABCD grouping, a CAT of ten or more shifts a patient into the high symptom groups where bronchodilator escalation and pulmonary rehabilitation earn priority. A change of two points or more counts as the minimum clinically meaningful difference, making CAT a sensitive tracking tool between visits.
Why Patients Complete It Alone
The test is deliberately self administered, usually in the waiting room, because clinician phrasing sways answers. Three minutes of honest marking yields information no scan provides, whether today’s treatment plan is actually restoring a life.
CAT measures impact, not diagnosis. Breathlessness from heart failure or deconditioning scores high too, so the number only speaks about COPD once the diagnosis itself is established.