title: Misdiagnosis of patients receiving inhaled therapies in primary care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the accuracy of diagnosis in a population receiving inhaled therapies due to respiratory diseases in a primary care setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  Noninterventional, multicenter, cross-sectional, observational epidemiologic study methodology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 9752 subjects were evaluated. Of these, 4188 (42.9%) patients were diagnosed with asthma, 4175 (42.8%) with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and 1389 had a diagnosis of disease of unknown origin. Of those over the age of 40 years, 4079 (50.9%) had COPD and 2877 (35.9%) had asthma. Sixty percent of the subjects were men, and the proportion of men was higher in patients with COPD (83.2%) than in the group with asthma (39.8%, P < 0.0001). Of subjects with COPD, 17.3% had mild, 55.3% had moderate, 24.1% had severe, and 3.2% had very severe disease. With regard to the level of severity of asthma, 34.9% of subjects had intermittent, 34.6% had mild persistent, 27.1% had moderate persistent, and 3.5% had severe persistent disease. Only 13.9% of patients in the COPD group had all the characteristics of COPD based on the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease criteria and an absence of the characteristics of asthma.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The majority of patients receiving inhaled therapy in primary care did not have an accurate diagnosis according to current international guidelines for COPD and asthma. More initiatives for improving diagnostic accuracy in respiratory diseases must be implemented in primary care.
authors: Pneumology Department, University Hospital of Guadalajara, 19002 Guadalajara, Spain. jlizquierdo@sescam.org
authors: José Luis
authors: JL
authors: Izquierdo
authors: Antonio
authors: A
authors: Martín
authors: Pilar
authors: P
authors: de Lucas
authors: José Miguel
authors: JM
authors: Rodríguez-González-Moro
authors: Carlos
authors: C
authors: Almonacid
authors: Alexandra
authors: A
authors: Paravisini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000175:diagnosis; D012138:Respiratory Therapy