Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, often shortened to COPD, is a chronic lung condition (in fact, several of them), which obstructs the airflow leaving the lungs. It is more common than you think – it affects more than 300 million people in the world. But a large-scale international study led by UCL researchers revealed that this number could be significantly reduced.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that causes obstructed airflow from the lungs. Image credit: Wikimedia
COPD is an umbrella term for several conditions, such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. This health condition causes 3 million deaths per year and is the world’s third leading cause of morbidity. It is more common in low- and middle-income countries and is especially concerning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you are worried about hundreds of millions of people living with COPD, you probably won’t like the fact that most people in less-wealthy countries live with this condition undiagnosed. This is because tests like spirometry are not available everywhere and require specialised professionals. However, screening is the only way to relieve millions and millions of people of this disease.
10,709 male and female adults aged 40 years or older from semiurban Bhaktapur, Nepal, urban Lima, Peru and rural Nakaseke, Uganda participated in the new study aiming to establish diagnostic accuracy of the diagnostic tools. Participants were not selected by their COPD diagnosis, which means that some of them had one of the conditions from the group.
In fact, scientists found that the prevalence of COPD varied by site, from 3% in Lima (Peru) to 7% in Nakaseke (Uganda) and 18% in Bhaktapur (Nepal). Sadly, 95 % of the cases were previously undiagnosed. 49 % of them were clinically significant and 16 % were severe and very-severe. Even more importantly, COPD could be diagnosed accurately using very simple instruments and methods.
Spirometry is the gold standard for COPD diagnosis, but it is expensive and complicated to use. Meanwhile other methods, such as questionnaires and a Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) assessment have not been tested for accuracy until now. PEF is a low-cost device that tests how fast a person can exhale. Scientists found that questionnaires together or without PEF tests are fairly accurate.
Principal Investigator Professor John Hurst said: “Action is needed: the global health community has neglected the burden of chronic respiratory diseases for too long. It is now time for people with chronic respiratory diseases such as COPD to be promptly identified, informed about their condition and treated – wherever they live in the world.”
The most effective way to reduce the number of COPD deaths is screening. This study should help make screening for this ailment that much more accessible in low and mid-income countries. Hopefully, it means that fewer people will live with undiagnosed COPD.
Source: UCL