Epidemiological characteristics and risk factors of COPD in people over 60 years old in Chaohu City, Anhui Province / 公共卫生与预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of COPD in people over 60 years old in Chaohu City, Anhui Province, and explore the risk factors affecting the occurrence and development of COPD, and to provide a data basis for formulating prevention and control measures of COPD. Methods Permanent residents over 60 years old in Chaohu City were selected as the research subjects. The subjects were selected by multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method. All research subjects were divided into two different groups according to the diagnostic criteria of COPD and received questionnaire survey and pulmonary function tests. The differences in epidemiological distribution of the two groups were compared by χ2 test. Logistics regression was used to analyze the risk factors affecting COPD. Results A total of 1722 cases were investigated in this study. The prevalence of COPD in people over 60 years old was 13.47%. The average age and body mass index of all research subjects were 70.4±7.5 years old and 20.4±3.5kg/m2, respectively. Among them, 49.25% were males, 20.96% had college degree or above, and 63.88% lived in cities and towns. 23.11% of the subjects still smoked, 32.58% had quit smoking, and 28.16% had a history of passive smoking or were still receiving passive smoking. 16.20% of the subjects had an occupational exposure to dust and particulate matter as coal miners and painters. 51.34% of the subjects had a family history of respiratory diseases. 83.57% of the subjects had other chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. There were 232 cases diagnosed as COPD in this study. All subjects were divided into the COPD group and control group according to the diagnostic criteria of COPD. There were no significant differences between the two groups in body mass index, marital status, education, residence, type of fuel used and family history of respiratory diseases. However, there were significant differences in age, gender, smoking status, occupational dust exposure and chronic disease complications between the two groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age (OR70~79 vs. 60~69=2.578, P=0.024; OR≥80 vs. 60~69=4.258, P=0.018), smoking status (ORpassive smoking vs. Active smoking=0.683, P=0.073; ORquit smoking vs. active smoking=0.365, P=0.020; ORNon-smoking vs. active smoking=0.252, P=0.008) and occupational dust exposure (OR=0.158, P=0.010) were the major risk factors for COPD. Conclusion Advanced age, active or passive smoking and occupational dust exposure are important risk factors for COPD.