The CAT Score: 8 Questions That Show How COPD Is Really Affecting You

If you're living with COPD, your care team may hand you a short, one-page questionnaire called the COPD Assessment Test — the CAT. It takes just a few minutes, and it does a job breathing tests alone can't: it measures how COPD is actually affecting your daily life.

The CAT asks you to rate eight everyday things, each on a scale from 0 (no problem at all) to 5 (as bad as it can be). Added together, they give a total score from 0 to 40.

The eight things it asks about

How often you cough. How much phlegm (chest secretions) you bring up. Whether your chest feels tight. How breathless you get walking up a hill or a flight of stairs. How limited you feel doing activities at home. How confident you feel leaving your home. How well you sleep. And how much energy you have.

What your score means

0–9 — low impact: COPD has minimal effect on daily life.

10–20 — medium impact: COPD has a moderate effect, and there may be room to optimize your treatment.

21–30 — high impact: COPD significantly limits daily activities.

31–40 — very high impact: COPD profoundly affects quality of life.

How your care team uses it

A score of 10 or higher points to a higher symptom burden and typically means it's worth adjusting or stepping up your maintenance treatment — for example, adding a long-acting inhaler. Your score is used alongside breathing tests (spirometry) and your history of flare-ups to guide treatment decisions, following the international COPD guidelines (known as GOLD). It's also a useful way to track whether a change — like pulmonary rehabilitation — is actually helping.

There are no right or wrong answers, and no score to "pass." The honest number is the useful number — it tells your care team where to focus.

This article is for education only and isn't a substitute for medical care. Questions about your situation? Call the office — we're happy to help.