Prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in an Urban Area. Changes in COPD Ten Years on

Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2022 Sep 29:17:2431-2441. doi: 10.2147/COPD.S377140. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Purpose: The prevalence of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Spain has been evaluated in the last ten years by EPISCAN in 2007 and EPISCAN II in 2017. This study describes changes in the prevalence of COPD in an urban region of Spain in the last 10 years, its risk factors and underdiagnosis.

Patients and methods: Participants from the Autonomous Community of Madrid (Spain) were selected from both studies up to the age of 80 years. A descriptive analysis of their sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, as well as by gender, was conducted. COPD was defined by a post-bronchodilator ratio <0.70.

Results: The prevalence of COPD in the Autonomous Community of Madrid increased non-significantly from 11.0% (95% CI: 8.9-13.5%) to 12.1% (95% CI: 9.6-15.1, p=0.612). However, the prevalence by gender showed an increase in women (5.6% to 14.7%, p<0.001) and a decrease in men (17.6% to 9.8%, p=0.08). Underdiagnosis was reduced from 81.0% to 67.9% (p=0.006), although with greater underdiagnosis in women (86.4% in EPISCAN and 100% in EPISCAN II). Smoking was higher in men than in women in EPISCAN (31.2% vs 23.0%, p<0.01) but with no differences by gender in EPISCAN II (25.5% men vs 26.0% women, p=0.146). Age, smoking, low BMI, and a sedentary lifestyle were consistently associated with COPD.

Conclusion: In 10 years in Madrid, there have been no changes in the global prevalence of COPD, but there have been important changes in women, with an increase in its prevalence, smoking habit and underdiagnosis.

Keywords: COPD; Madrid; prevalence; spirometry.

MeSH terms

  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Bronchodilator Agents / therapeutic use
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Prevalence
  • Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive* / diagnosis
  • Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive* / drug therapy
  • Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive* / epidemiology
  • Risk Factors
  • Spirometry

Substances

  • Bronchodilator Agents

Grants and funding

The EPI-SCAN study was funded by an unrestricted grant from GlaxoSmithKline Spain. EPISCAN II was a sponsored study from GlaxoSmithKline Spain registered in ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01122758. All sponsors played no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing the original reports.