Prevalence and associated factors of COPD among Aboriginal peoples in Canada: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundCOPD among Aboriginal peoples in Canada is a major public health concern. This study was conducted in order to determine the prevalence and association between certain risk factors and COPD among the 35-year-old or older Aboriginal peoples in Canada.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study. It uses data from Statistics Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS), 2012. It consists of 8,117 self-identified Aboriginal peoples, aged 35 years old or older from all Canadian provinces and territories. The study outcomes centered on evaluating the prevalence and associated factors of COPD.ResultsThis study found that 6.80% of the participants self-reported having COPD. Results of the logistic regression analysis show that COPD was significantly higher among daily smokers (odds ratio [OR], 2.28; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.65–3.14), aged 55 years or older (OR, 3.04; 95% CI, 2.14–4.30), who earned $5,000–$9,999 per annum (OR, 4.21; 95% CI, 2.39–7.41) and needed health care over the past 12 months and did not receive it (OR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.27–2.65).ConclusionThe findings of our study show that COPD is strongly associated with Aboriginal peoples, who are older, smoke, have a low socioeconomic status (SES) and do not have access to health care when needed. Clinicians, health care professionals, medical/public health organizations, researchers and patients will greatly benefit from additional research in this common, serious and often overlooked disease among Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and its associated factors among adults in Abeshge District, Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

“…The prevalence of COPD among adults was also reported in other studies from different countries. In comparison to our result, some studies reported lower prevalence [6.0% in Peru [33], 6.8% in Canada [9], 6.6% in Egypt [31], 13.4% in Korea [34] and 14.2% in Portugal [35]] and some other studies reported higher prevalence (24% in Netherlands [36], 18.4% in Greece [37] and 21.8% in Russia [38]]. In fact, the prevalence of COPD is variable across countries and across different groups within countries [18].…”

“…In this study, the prevalence of COPD in the smoker group (both former and current smoker) was found to be higher than that in the non smoker group. Similar findings were reported in several studies [1, 3, 7, 9, 41]. Cigarette smoking is the most common risk factor for COPD worldwide [3].…”

“…However, the clinical presentation of COPD tends to be ignored by patients and physicians until the disease reaches to advanced stage [8]. This means that the information about COPD prevalence is likely underestimated, as the results reported are not confirmed by objective lung function tests [9, 10]. Spirometry is required to make the diagnosis of COPD [5, 11] and is being increasingly used in epidemiological studies to objectively assess airflow limitation [4].…”

Prevalence and Risk Factors of ACO (Asthma-COPD Overlap) in Aboriginal People

“…Additionally, a cross-sectional study among Aboriginal people assessed the risk factors associated with COPD. It was reported that individuals aged 55 and older were significantly associated with the risk of COPD [18]. We could find no other studies that focused on Aboriginal peoples with ACO.…”

“…A large population-based study of 8,028 individuals reported that low income and low quality of education were risk factors for asthma and COPD [29]. In a cross-sectional study that focused on the associated factors of COPD among Aboriginal peoples, the authors reported that Aboriginal peoples making less than the median income of $20,600 were at a higher risk to be associated with COPD [18].…”