Many patients affected by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are unaware of their disease, which reduces their chances of receiving effective treatment, according to the results of a study published in the journal Respiratory Medicine.
The chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a chronic respiratory disease characterized by slow and progressive obstruction of the airways, eventually causing chronic respiratory failure and regular hospitalizations.
Inserm researchers carried out a study with 3,276 adults aged 40 to 64 between 2011 and 2013. The volunteers had to complete a health questionnaire indicating in particular whether they were aware of a respiratory disease. They also had to perform a test to discover breath problems (spirometry).
The conclusions of this study revealed that among the participants of the study, 72 to 76.4% were unaware of their condition, including approximately 64% of those presenting with the severe forms. These figures include people withasthma and COPD, but are rather to be compared to the rate of underdiagnosis of COPD alone: adults of this age are rarely unaware of their asthmatic status. “A full diagnosis would have required a medical examination, but the subjects with undiagnosed bronchial obstruction had symptoms typical of COPD – including coughing, sputum and shortness of breath – suggesting that many of them actually had the condition.“, confirms Luc Dauchet, co-author of this work.
“Symptoms appear slowly, usually after age 40, so those affected become accustomed to this gradual decrease in breathing capacity and are unaware that they are sick“, clarifies Luc Dauchet.
Third leading cause of death
The results of this study should alert health professionals to improve screening for this serious disease. 40,000 new patients are declared each year in France. And 3.5 million people are affected in France, including 100,000 patients on home oxygen. This disease causes 16,000 deaths every year. COPD could become the 3rd leading cause of death in the world.
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