Materials and Methods
Study design
This was a two-phase qualitative study: Phase I (elicitation) included focus groups and interviews, and Phase II involved cognitive interviews (see Online Supplementary).
Sample
The Phase I sample included participants from one of four categories (see Table 1). COPD severity was based on airflow obstruction, defined by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD),36 and risk factors based on the literature and data mining. Subjects in categories (groups) 1 and 2 provided information on symptoms, risk factors, history and other breathing-related issues from the perspective of people recently diagnosed with clinically significant COPD—the target population. Groups 3 and 4 were designed to provide insight into how experienced (risk factor) but non-COPD (diagnosis naive) subjects describe their respiratory symptoms, risk factors, history and other breathing-related issues.