Undiagnosed Chronic Airflow Obstruction Results In Work Loss And Impairs Quality Of Life

The awareness of the individual and societal burden of chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) continues to increase. However,
data on the impact of the disease in workers are scarce.


Nicolas Roche (University Ren?© Descartes in Paris, France) and his
colleagues studied 5,008 subjects visiting health prevention centres
in France. Prevalence of airflow obstruction was 7.5%. A diagnosis of
respiratory disease was reported for only 6.1% of these subjects.
Severity was mild to moderate in 95%.


Despite this, quality of life was significantly impaired in these
subjects, who also reported more dyspnoea and more missed working
days (mean values: 6.71 days versus 1.45 days per patient per year in
patients without airflow obstruction) than those without COPD.



Thus, increasing efforts directed at improving the diagnosis of COPD
in working subjects may be of value to decrease the burden of the
disease.



Title of original article-

Impact of chronic airflow obstruction in a working population


The European Respiratory Journal is the peer-reviewed scientific publication of the European Respiratory Society (more than 8,000 specialists in lung diseases and respiratory medicine in Europe, the United States and Australia).


European Respiratory Journal