Smokers' Cough Is Not Just a Smokers' Disease, Study Shows

www.bloomberg.com

By Angela Cullen

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a preventable illness mostly caused by cigarettes, is wrongly perceived as a smokers' ailment, masking the public health threat and limiting treatment, scientists said.

The condition known as COPD is killing more and more non-smokers, and its prevalence is higher than previously estimated, according to a study in The Lancet medical journal today. Allergies, tuberculosis and poor ventilation can cause the disease, the fifth-leading cause of death in high-income countries. A shift in the way people view COPD may help save more lives, an accompanying editorial said.

More than 2.5 million people die of COPD every year, as many as die from HIV/AIDS, according to the World Health Organization. Aging populations and the continued use of tobacco may propel it to the third biggest killer by 2020, WHO estimates. Because of its stigma as a self-inflicted disease, COPD is often under-diagnosed and under-treated, scientists including A. Sonia Buist, a medical professor at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, said.

``If every smoker in the world were to stop smoking today, the rates of COPD would probably continue to increase for the next 20 years,'' Buist and colleague David M. Mannino wrote in the journal.

A study by the scientists of more than 9,000 volunteers, randomly selected, showed that one in 10 adults over the age of 40 suffered from advanced stages of COPD. Prevalence of the disease increased with age, and was similar among people who had never smoked compared with participants who had smoked for a certain period. The results showed a higher prevalence than previous studies of the disease, Buist said.

COPD causes inflammation of the main airways in the lungs and a build-up of mucus, leading to shortness of breath and a persistent cough. More than 15 percent of COPD occurs in people who have never smoked, according to The Lancet editorial.

Although smoking is the most important risk factor in high-income and middle-income countries, low-income nations have more indoor air pollution.