COPD - Prevalence and risk study from rural north India

BACKGROUND: The increasing impact of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) on health care resources is now being recognized as a major public health problem and is projected to be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020.AIMS and OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence and assess the risk factors for COPD in adults using spirometry (GOLD criteria).METHODS:A community-based, cross sectional, multiphasic survey was conducted on 2112 adults, age >35 years. COPD was diagnosed using fixed ratio post bronchodilator FEV1/FVC 65 years [OR 1.079 95% CI 1.064-1.095], exposure to high risk occupation [OR 2.395 95% CI 1.485-3.861] and smoking [OR 2.263 95% CI 1.467–3.492]. Other factors as exposure to passive tobacco smoke, education, socio economic status did play a role independently, however no significant higher risk was observed using multivariate statistical model. CONCLUSION:Ageing, smoking, occupation and biomass smoke exposure certainly explain the web of causation on the background of other risk factors as passive smoking, education and socioeconomic status.