World COPD Day 2018: All you need to know about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Updated: Wednesday, November 21, 2018, 15:18 [IST]

Bengaluru, Nov 21: Today World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Day is being observed. COPD is a widely misunderstood and underdiagnosed disease. It's never too early or too late to address COPD. Diagnosis and management of COPD can improve longevity and the quality of life.

World COPD Day 2018: All you need to know about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

World COPD Day was founded by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). The first World COPD Day was held in 2002.

There are 251 million people suffering from COPD in the world. India has a prevalence of COPD that is higher than the global average. In 1990, 28.1 million cases reported in India. BY 2016, the number of cases rose to 55.3 million.

Risk factors:

Tobacco smoke: Active and passive exposure
Outdoor pollution: Vehicle and industry emissions
Indoor pollution: Burning coal, animal dung, crop residue as cooking fuel
Occupational: Exposure to dust and chemicals/fumes
Genes: Severe hereditary deficiency of Alpha-1 antitrypsin

COPD in India:

2nd leading individual cause of disease burden
Substantial portion of people with COPD have never smoked
Air pollution contributed to more DALYs due to COPD than smoking
More DALYs* per person with COPD or asthma than the global average
Overall rise in prevalence due to the ageing population
3 out of 4 chronic respiratory diseases is COPD

Myth	Fact
COPD affects the elderly, not youngsters or children	Indoor air pollution can affect the unborn child, COPD happens to children too
Asthma and COPD are the same	Asthma is a separate disease and is considered a risk factor for developing COPD.
COPD is curable	COPD is preventable but not curable. It is treatable, i.e, treatment options are available for improving quality of life of the patient
COPD affects rich men as they smoke cigarettes	The disease affects men & women equally. More than 90% of COPD deaths occur in low and middle- income countries.

*According to WHO, One DALY can be thought of as one lost year of "healthy" life. The sum of these DALYs across the population, or the burden of disease, can be thought of as a measurement of the gap between current health status and an ideal health situation where the entire the population lives to an advanced age, free of disease and disability. DALYs are calculated as the sum of the Years of Life Lost (YLL) due to premature mortality in the population and the Years Lost due to Disability (YLD) for people living with the health condition or its consequences.

World COPD Day 2018: All you need to know about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Risk factors:

tuberculosis lungs cancer

tuberculosis lungs cancer

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