Prioritised research agenda for prevention and control of chronic respiratory diseases

Abstract

The 2008-2013 World Health Organization (WHO) action plan on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) includes chronic respiratory diseases as one of its four priorities. Major chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) include asthma and rhinitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, occupational lung diseases, sleep-disordered breathing, pulmonary hypertension, bronchiectiasis and pulmonary interstitial diseases. A billion people suffer from chronic respiratory diseases, the majority being in developing countries. CRDs have major adverse effects on the life and disability of patients. Effective intervention plans can prevent and control CRDs, thus reducing morbidity and mortality. A prioritised research agenda should encapsulate all of these considerations in the frame of the global fight against NCDs. This requires both CRD-targeted interventions and transverse NCD programmes which include CRDs, with emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention.

Impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden: Greece as a case study

“…The prevalence of COPD has been estimated to be approximately 210 million cases worldwide [17]. However, a recent consensus has increased this estimate to 328 million individuals [18], while some reports suggest there are now 600 million cases [19].…”

“…In fact, with an estimated world prevalence of 9.2%, in countries of Latin America a mean 13.4% of the population is diagnosed with COPD [21] compared to ∼6% in the USA [22,23] and 8.6% in Japan [24]. In Europe there is also high variability among studies, with estimates ranging from 4% to 10.2% [17,25], while current data point to a probable value of ∼3% [25]. However, irrespective of world region and independent of prevalence within a region, COPD is substantially underdiagnosed, with only about 10-15% of all cases identified globally [26], while the rest elude diagnosis and early intervention [26].…”

“…Although there were obvious methodological differences, an increasing COPD prevalence rate seems to be apparent within the past 10 years, although high COPD prevalence rates are to be expected considering the high smoking rates in Greece compared with other European Union (EU) countries, as well as the rest of the world [17].…”

Asthma outcomes improve with continuous positive airway pressure for obstructive sleep apnea

“…The Global Burden of Disease Study estimates that there are 334 million asthmatics worldwide, and the global prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) exceeds 100 million patients 1, 2. In the developed world, between 5% and 10% of the adult population suffer from asthma 3.…”

Profile of COPD Patients in Rural Population Attending Rural Tertiary Health Care Centre of Central India

“…Exacerbations and comorbidities contribute to the overall severity in individual patients." It is now agreed that an estimated 210 million people have COPD worldwide 1 .The highly cited, influential Global Burden of Disease (GBD) studies estimated that COPD causes the death of at least 2.9 million people annually. The GBD highlights that COPD was the sixth leading cause of death in 1990, has been the fourth since 2000, and is projected to be the third by 2020 2 .…”