As World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Day was held on Thursday, November 21, an international study by WHO researchers shows that the COPD mortality rate fell by 12% worldwide between 1995 and 2017.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic respiratory disease characterized by permanent bronchial obstruction. Very strongly linked to smoking, it is manifested by insidious shortness of breath and a cough. It can lead to respiratory failure if left untreated.
The number of patients diagnosed with COPD continues to increase worldwide, shows a study published in The European Respiratory Journal. The analysis includes data from countries that have not yet had a COPD mortality rate assessment.
“According to data from the World Health Organization 175 million people were living with COPD in 2015. The burden of COPD continues to be high, but existing data on COPD mortality was based on statistical from a number of high-income countries in Europe, Australia, Japan and the United States,” says Dr Joannie Lortet-Tieulent, research fellow at the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. and lead author of the study.
A mortality rate reduced by 12%
To broaden the spectrums of COPD incidence data globally, the researchers extracted data on the number of COPD deaths recorded between 1995 and 2017 from the WHO database taking account of age, sex and year of death. In total, almost 3.36 million COPD deaths were analysed.
Data on COPD mortality come from 24 countries around the world, including twelve in Europe, six in Latin America and the Caribbean, two in North America, two in Asia and two in Oceania. The analysis only focused on people aged 50 to 84. Data drawn from two key periods of the study, from 2000 to 2015, showed that the combined death rate for all countries included in the analysis fell by 12%.
The mortality rate at the beginning of the study period was 68 deaths per 100,000 people per year, towards the end of the study period it dropped to 60 deaths per 100,000 people per year. “The data suggests that the proportion of COPD patients who die prematurely due to the disease is decreasing overall, which is very encouraging. This means that people may be less exposed to risk factors now that the disease is managed more efficiently”, analyze the authors of the study.
More COPD deaths linked to aging population
But the total number of deaths also increased by 12%, the study shows: there were an estimated 180,950 deaths related to COPD at the start of the study period for all the countries included in the analysis. However, this figure rose to 203,090 for all countries at the end of this period.
“We believe the number of deaths is increasing because in all countries life expectancy is increasing and the population is increasing. Although the death rate from COPD may decrease over time, this decrease is too small to compensate for the fact that every year more and more people are dying of COPD due to aging populations.”
As of 2016, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death worldwide, with approximately 3 million deaths (5.3% of all deaths).
“We must continue to seek more effective treatments and ways to manage COPD. We must also reduce the stigma surrounding the disease and raise awareness of risk factors other than smoking – especially the dangers of damaging our lungs when we are children,” the researchers conclude.
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