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Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a term referring to a large group of lung diseases characterized by obstruction to airflow that interferes with normal breathing. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are the most important conditions that compose COPD and they frequently co-exist, hence physicians prefer the term COPD. It does not include other obstructive diseases such as asthma.
· COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in America, claiming the lives of 120,000 Americans in 2002.
· Beginning in 2000, women have exceeded men in the number of deaths attributable to COPD. In 2002, over 61,000 females died compared to 59,000 males.
· Smoking is the primary risk factor for COPD. Approximately 80 to 90 percent of COPD deaths are caused by smoking. Female smokers are nearly 13 times as likely to die from COPD as women who have never smoked. Male smokers are nearly 12 times as likely to die from COPD as men who have never smoked.
· Other risk factors of COPD include air pollution, second-hand smoke, history of childhood respiratory infections and heredity. Occupational exposure to certain industrial pollutants also increases the odds for COPD. A recent study found that the fraction of COPD attributed to work was estimated as 19.2% overall and 31.1% among never smokers.
· In 2002, 11.2 million U.S. adults were estimated to have COPD. However, close to 24 million U.S. adults have evidence of impaired lung function, indicating an under diagnosis of COPD.
· In 2004, the cost to the nation for COPD was approximately $37.2 billion, including healthcare expenditures of $20.9 billion in direct health care expenditures, $7.4 billion in indirect morbidity costs and $8.9 billion in indirect mortality costs.
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