Prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and its Association with Tobacco Smoking and Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure among Rural Population.

A fi eld survey was conducted for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) epidemiology in the rural fi eld practice area of Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore, India, which covers a population of 44,387 to fi nd out the prevalence of COPD in adult subjects of 35 years and above using cluster sampling technique and to determine the association of tobacco smoking, environmental tobacco smoking (ETS) exposure and type of cooking fuel used with COPD. The overall prevalence of COPD was 4.36%. The prevalence among males and females were 5.32% and 3.41% respectively. The prevalence was found to be increasing with an increase in age. The tobacco smoke and exposure to ETS was signifi cantly associated with higher odds of COPD with adjusted odds ratio 2.97 and 2.67 respectively. Thus, there was a signifi cant association between tobacco smoking and ETS exposure with COPD.