title: The need to increase awareness of the risk factors of COPD.
abstract: COPD is a heterogeneous disease responsible for a major burden on public and individual health. A wide variety of intrinsic and environmental risk factors are involved, and exert their influence at various time points during the life span of individuals. Knowledge of these factors is of utmost importance to develop appropriate screening and prevention programs, and may help improving the pathophysiological knowledge of the disease. Accordingly, there are multiple targets of information and education on risk factors for COPD, including the general population and patients, workers and employers, doctors and other healthcare professionals, researchers, policy-makers, payers, etc. Gender and socioeconomic factors need to be specifically considered. Importantly, it is likely that increasing the specific knowledge of COPD risk factors among the above-mentioned targets cannot not be obtained without increasing the general knowledge of COPD in the population, which at present is dramatically low.
authors.affiliation: a Respiratory and Intensive Care Medicine, Hôpitaux Universitaires Paris Centre, Hôpital Cochin, AP-HP and Université Paris Descartes (EA2511), Sorbonne Paris Cité , Paris , France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Roche
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000209:etiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: COPD; domestic; epidemiology; gender; occupation; pollution; risk factors; smoking; socioeconomic influence