[Study on the prevalence rate of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in northern part of Guangdong province].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and its risk factors in population over 40 years old in northern part of Guangdong province.


METHODS
Using uniform scheme, procedures and questionnaire, a cluster-randomized-sampling survey for the population aged over 40 years in a rural area of Shaoguan in the northern part of Guangdong province was performed. Spirometry was performed for every participant, followed by a bronchodilatation test when bronchial obstruction was present.


RESULTS
There were 1468 cases with complete data from 1498 people aged >or= 40 years including 640 males, 828 females with an average age of 54.3 years old. The total prevalence of COPD was 12.0%. The prevalence of COPD in males was significantly higher than that in females (18.3% vs. 7.1%, P < 0.01). Only 80.7% of the patients with COPD presented one or more symptoms as cough, phlegm, or dyspnoea. Underdiagnosis of COPD would be quite serious. Only 26.1% of the cases was previously diagnosed to have chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or COPD. Smoking was an important risk factor to COPD and 78.4% of the patients with COPD were smokers. However, relation of biomass and COPD called for further investigation.


CONCLUSIONS
Prevalence of COPD was much higher than expected in the northern part of Guangdong while smoking was an most important risk factor of COPD. Lung function test seemed to be of great importance to COPD diagnosis, especially in the earlier period of COPD.
Wang
Xiao-ping
XP
The First Municipal Hospital of Shaoguan, Guangdong Provice, Shaoguan 512000, China.
Zhou
Yu-min
YM
Zeng
Xiang-yi
XY
Liu
Sheng-ming
SM
Qiu
Rong
R
Xie
Jun-fen
JF
Zheng
Jin-ping
JP
Lü
Jia-chun
JC
Zhong
Nan-shan
NS
Ran
Pi-xin
PX
D000328:Adult; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires