Babu, Giridhara R

Boudewijns, Esther A

Salvi, Sundeep

Sheikh, Aziz

van Schayck, Onno Cp

Boudewijns, Esther A.

Babu, Giridhara R.

van Schayck, Onno C. P.

NARCIS 

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a disease of old age?

Edinburgh Research Explorer

     Edinburgh Research Explorer                                      Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseCitation for published version:Boudewijns, EA, Babu, GR, Salvi, S, Sheikh, A & van Schayck, OC 2018, 'Chronic obstructive pulmonarydisease: a disease of old age?', Journal of Global Health, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 020306.https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.08.020306Digital Object Identifier (DOI):10.7189/jogh.08.020306Link:Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research ExplorerDocument Version:Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordPublished In:Journal of Global HealthPublisher Rights Statement:This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.General rightsCopyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s)and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise andabide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Take down policyThe University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorercontent complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright pleasecontact openaccess@ed.ac.uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately andinvestigate your claim.Download date: 12. Sep. 2019VIEWPOINTSwww.jogh.org •  doi: 10.7189/jogh.08.020306 1 December 2018  •  Vol. 8 No. 2 •  020306Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mor-tality globally, with more than 174 million people suffering from this disease. Historically, COPD has been considered as a disease affecting the elderly, with a preponderance in male smokers. Over the last few years, this is disputed by several studies indicating a growing health burden of COPD among women [1] and non-smokers [2]. Our historical view of COPD as a disease of elderly male smokers is thus slowly changing towards an all-encompassing range of susceptibilities for COPD. However, what is overlooked is that COPD is not a disease exclusively found among elderly people, but that it is often prev-alent among younger people as well.According to Jenkins [1], there are major health differences between women and men in COPD risk, pro-gression and outcomes, which poses challenges for its management. Women are more likely to be under-diagnosed, smoke less, have a lower body mass index (BMI), are often exposed to other polluting sourc-es such as biomass fuel and are more susceptible to developing COPD. Besides the growing recognition of the burden among women, several studies have demonstrated that risk factors other than smoking are equally or even more closely associated with COPD [2,3]. Emerging evidence suggests that approximate-ly 25-45% of patients with COPD in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have never smoked [2,4]. For example, approximately 56% persons affected with COPD in urban slums and 85% in rural areas in India never smoked [4,5]. Exposure to biomass fuels is probably the leading cause of COPD in younger women [2,3]. Despite limited efforts to characterise risk profiles in vulnerable communities, available evidence indicates that risk factors unrelated to smoking contribute significantly to the devel-opment of COPD, especially in LMICs [2].The available data regarding the prevalence of COPD in different age categories is scarce. A study in rural Uganda demonstrated that COPD was most prevalent among women under the age of 40 years [6]. The prevalence decreased with age, which may be explained by the healthy survivor effect. This suggests that Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a disease of old age?Esther A Boudewijns1, Giridhara R Babu2, Sundeep Salvi3, Aziz Sheikh4,  Onno CP van Schayck1,41 Care and Public Health Research Institute, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands2 Public Health Foundation of India, Indian Institute of Public Health-Hyderabad, Bangalore campus, Bangalore, India3 Chest Research Foundation, Pune, India4  Centre of Medical Informatics, Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UKUndue focus on age – particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) – may lead to under-diagnosis and an under-estimation of the prevalence and disease burden from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.VIEWPOINTSDecember 2018  •  Vol. 8 No. 2 •  020306 2 www.jogh.org •  doi: 10.7189/jogh.08.020306the elderly group most likely consisted of healthy elderly people, and the unhealthy elderly had passed away. Furthermore, de Marco (2004) showed a relatively high prevalence of COPD in young adults aged 20-44 years in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey [7]. It seems that COPD is often un-derdiagnosed in younger patients, which suggests that it might be even more prevalent than assumed. Better orientation regarding diagnosing COPD in younger people is urgently needed in order to prevent underdiagnosis of the disease.A history of smoking is one of the major risk factors for COPD and exposure to it is often analysed using pack-years, defined as the product of the number of packages smoked per day and the number of years a person has smoked [8]. Several studies have demonstrated a direct association between pack-years and the incidence and prevalence of COPD, with higher risks associated with an increasing number of pack-years and a direct association between an increasing number of cigarettes per day and lung function de-cline. High numbers of pack-years are usually the result of either lengthy exposure or a high smoke in-tensity. Exposure to smoke from biomass fuels can cause a higher intensity compared to tobacco smoke, with particulate matter (PM2.5) levels reaching 1500 µg/m3 [9], which is 60 times higher than the levels recommended by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines. It, therefore, seems evident that there is a direct association between cumulative exposure to biomass smoke, as well as the combined risk with smoking, and the incidence of COPD, leading to COPD in people younger than 40 years [10]. More-over, looking at the prevalence rates among certain groups, this conclusion seems to be confirmed. Sev-eral studies suggest that women are more likely to present with COPD before the age of 60 than men [1]. Furthermore, the burden among women seems to be higher in LMICs than in high-income countries (HICs) [1]. COPD due to risk factors unrelated to smoking seems to be more apparent in LMICs than in HICs [2]. High exposure to indoor air pollution from the use of biomass fuels seems to be the most prob-able factor resulting in the high burden of young women affected with COPD in LMICs, combined with second-hand smoke exposure and high levels of atmospheric pollution [2]. Biomass smoke contributes to approximately 50% of all deaths from COPD in LMICs [2]. In these countries, justified stress on the Indoor air pollution is an important risk factor for the development and progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in young people in low- and middle-income countries.Photo: A young woman with increased risk of COPD due to indoor air pollution. From the collection of Martijn van der Sanden (tijnmedia), used with permissionVIEWPOINTSwww.jogh.org •  doi: 10.7189/jogh.08.020306 3 December 2018  •  Vol. 8 No. 2 •  020306effect of smoking has often overshadowed the equal or greater impact of addressing other risk factors un-related to smoking, such as biomass fuels. To tackle the enormous burden of COPD in these LMICs, in addition to smoking cessation, interventions should focus on reducing indoor air pollution, such as im-provement of traditional stoves for people who have no access to cleaner fuels due to financial or logistic constraints [11].We thus argue that the main focus when diagnosing COPD should not be on age, as this will lead to un-derdiagnosis and an underestimation of the problem, specifically in LMICs. It is important to consider contextually specific interventions to reduce indoor air pollution to mitigate the COPD burden in young persons.Funding: Dr Giridhara R Babu is supported by the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellowship [grant number IA/CPHI/14/1/501499] in Public health and clinical medicine. No other specific grant from any funding agency was received.Authorship contributions: EAB wrote the first version of the manuscript. CPvS supervised the writing. GRB, SS and AS critically reviewed the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final version of the man-uscript.Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available upon request from the corresponding author) and declare no conflict of interest.  1  Jenkins CR, Chapman KR, Donohue JF, Roche N, Tsiligianni I, Han MK. Improving the management of COPD in wom-en. Chest. 2017;151:686-96. Medline:27816445 doi:10.1016/j.chest.2016.10.031  2  Salvi SS, Barnes PJ. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in non-smokers. Lancet. 2009;374:733-43. Medline:19716966 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61303-9  3  van Schayck OCP, Boudewijns EA. COPD and asthma: the emergency is clear, now is the time for action. Lancet Respir Med. 2017;5:668-9. Medline:28822789 doi:10.1016/S2213-2600(17)30308-9  4  Brashier B, Londhe J, Madas S, Vincent V, Salvi S. Prevalence of self-reported respiratory symptoms, asthma and chron-ic bronchitis in slum area of a rapidly developing Indian city. Open J Respir Dis. 2012;2:73.  5  Salvi S, Juvekar S, Londhe J, Brashier B, Madas S, Barnes P. Prevalence of COPD in a rural population in India. Eur Respir J. 2011;38:2954.  6  van Gemert F, Kirenga B, Chavannes N, Kamya M, Luzige S, Musinguzi P, et al. Prevalence of chronic obstructive pul-monary disease and associated risk factors in Uganda (FRESH AIR Uganda): a prospective cross-sectional observational study. Lancet Glob Health. 2015;3:e44. Medline:25539969 doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(14)70337-7  7  de Marco R, Accordini S, Cerveri I, Corsico A, Sunyer J, Neukirch F, et al. An international survey of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in young adults according to GOLD stages. Thorax. 2004;59:120-5. Medline:14760151 doi:10.1136/thorax.2003.011163  8  Bhatt SP, Kim YI, Harrington KF, Hokanson JE, Lutz SM, Cho MH, et al. Smoking duration alone provides stronger risk estimates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than pack-years. Thorax. 2018;73:414-21. Medline:29326298 doi:10.1136/thoraxjnl-2017-210722  9  Dionisio KL, Howie S, Fornace KM, Chimah O, Adegbola RA, Ezzati M. Measuring the exposure of infants and children to indoor air pollution from biomass fuels in The Gambia. Indoor Air. 2008;18:317-27. Medline:18422570 doi:10.1111/j.1600-0668.2008.00533.x10  Csikesz NG, Gartman EJ. New developments in the assessment of COPD: early diagnosis is key. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2014;9:277. Medline:2460022011  Gordon S, Mortimer K, Grigg J, Balmes J. In control of ambient and household air pollution-how low should we go? Lancet Respir Med. 2017;5:918-20. Medline:29056571 doi:10.1016/S2213-2600(17)30393-4Correspondence to:Esther A Boudewijns Care and Public Health Research Institute Maastricht University Postbus 616 6200 MD Maastricht The Netherlands esther.boudewijns@maastrichtuniversity.nlREFERENCES

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease:a disease of old age?

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease:a disease of old age?

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