Decreased COPD prevalence in Sweden after decades of decrease in smoking.

BACKGROUND: COPD has increased in prevalence worldwide over several decades until the first decade after the millennium shift. Evidence from a few recent population studies indicate that the prevalence may be levelling or even decreasing in some areas in Europe. Since the 1970s, a substantial and ongoing decrease in smoking prevalence has been observed in several European countries including Sweden. The aim of the current study was to estimate the prevalence, characteristics and risk factors for COPD in the Swedish general population. A further aim was to estimate the prevalence trend of COPD in Northern Sweden from 1994 to 2009. METHODS: Two large random population samples were invited to spirometry with bronchodilator testing and structured interviews in 2009-2012, one in south-western and one in northern Sweden, n = 1839 participants in total. The results from northern Sweden were compared to a study performed 15 years earlier in the same area and age-span. The diagnosis of COPD required both chronic airway obstruction (CAO) and the presence of respiratory symptoms, in line with the GOLD documents since 2017. CAO was defined as post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC < 0.70, with sensitivity analyses based on the FEV1/FVC < lower limit of normal (LLN) criterion. RESULTS: Based on the fixed ratio definition, the prevalence of COPD was 7.0% (men 8.3%; women 5.8%) in 2009-2012. The prevalence of moderate to severe (GOLD ≥ 2) COPD was 3.5%. The LLN based results were about 30% lower. Smoking, occupational exposures, and older age were risk factors for COPD, whereof smoking was the most dominating risk factor. In northern Sweden the prevalence of COPD, particularly moderate to severe COPD, decreased significantly from 1994 to 2009, and the decrease followed a decrease in smoking. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of COPD has decreased in Sweden, and the prevalence of moderate to severe COPD was particularly low. The decrease follows a major decrease in smoking prevalence over several decades, but smoking remained the dominating risk factor for COPD.

Challenges to the Application of Integrated, Personalized Care for Patients with COPD-A Vision for the Role of Clinical Information.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a complex disease defined by airflow limitation and characterized by a spectrum of treatable and untreatable pulmonary and extra-pulmonary disease characteristics. Nonpharmacological management related to physical activity, physical capacity, body composition, breathing and energy-saving techniques, coping strategies, and self-management is as important as its pharmacological management. Most patients with COPD carry other chronic diagnoses and this poses a key challenge, as it lowers the quality of life, increases mortality, and impacts healthcare consumption. A personalized, multi-, and interprofessional approach is key. Today, healthcare is poorly organized to meet this complexity with the isolation between care levels, logic silos of the different healthcare professions, and lack of continuity of care along the patient's journey with the healthcare system. In order to meet the criteria for integrated, personalized care for COPD, the structural capabilities of healthcare to support a comprehensive approach and continuity of care needs improvement. COPD is preeminently a disease that requires a transition from a reactive single-specialty approach to a proactive interprofessional approach. In this study, we discuss the issues that need to be addressed when moving from current health care practice to a person-centered model where the care processes and information are aligned to the individual personal needs of the patient.

Triple therapy (ICS/LABA/LAMA) in COPD: thinking out of the box.

Triple inhaler therapy in COPD might in some real-life situations be useful outside of the strict indications reported by the registration agencies, but at the same time in some other situations it could be better avoided, even when recommended http://ow.ly/CbOe30njXV2.

Prediction of COPD and Related Events Improves by Combining Spirometry and the Single Breath Nitrogen Test.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) develops in small airways. Severity of small airway pathology relates to progression and mortality. The present study evaluated the prediction of COPD of a validated test for small airway disease, i.e. a slope of the alveolar plateau of the single breath nitrogen test (N2-slope). The N2-slope, spirometry, age, smoking habits, and anthropometric variables at baseline were obtained in a population-based sample (n = 592). The cohort was followed for first COPD events (first hospital admission of COPD or related conditions or death from COPD) during 38 years. During follow-up, 52 subjects (8.8%) had a first COPD event, of which 18 (3.0%) died with a first COPD diagnosis. In the proportional hazard regression analysis adjusted for age and smoking habits, the cumulative COPD event incidence increased from 5% among those with high forced expired volume in one second (FEV1) to 25% among those with low FEV1, while increasing from 4% among those with the lowest N2-slope to 26% among those with the highest. However, combining the N2-slope and FEV1 resulted in considerable synergy in the prediction of first COPD event and even more so when taking account of smoking habits. The cumulative COPD event incidence rate was 75% among heavy smokers with the highest N2-slope and lowest FEV1, and less than 1% among never smokers with the lowest N2-slope and highest FEV1. Thus, combining the results of the single breath N2-slope and FEV1 considerably improved the prediction of COPD events as compared to either test alone.

Effectiveness of early budesonide intervention in Caucasian versus Asian patients with asthma: 3-year results of the START study.

OBJECTIVE AND BACKGROUND: Few studies have assessed the effectiveness of inhaled corticosteroid therapy exclusively in Asian patients with asthma. The present analysis compared the efficacy of early intervention with inhaled budesonide in Caucasian and Asian patients over the first 3 years of the inhaled Steroid Treatment As Regular Therapy in early asthma study. METHODS: Patients aged 5-66 years with mild persistent asthma of

Effects of early intervention with inhaled budesonide on lung function in newly diagnosed asthma.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Asthmatic patients lose lung function faster than normal subjects. The effectiveness of early intervention with inhaled corticosteroids on this decline in lung function is not established in recent-onset disease. DESIGN: The Inhaled Steroid Treatment as Regular Therapy in Early Asthma study was a randomized, double-blind study in 7,165 patients (5 to 66 years old), with persistent asthma for < 2 years to determine whether early intervention with low-dose inhaled budesonide prevents severe asthma-related events and the decline in lung function. Patients received budesonide (200 mug qd for children < 11 years old and 400 mug qd for others) or placebo for 3 years in addition to usual asthma medications. RESULTS: Treatment with budesonide significantly improved prebronchodilator and postbronchodilator FEV(1) percentage of predicted and reduced the mean declines from baseline for postbronchodilator FEV(1) at 1 year and 3 years: - 0.62% and - 1.79% for budesonide and - 2.11% and - 2.68% for placebo, respectively (p < 0.001). The decline was more marked for male patients, active smokers, and patients > 18 years old, and the smallest treatment effects were in adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term, once-daily treatment with low-dose budesonide improved both prebronchodilator and postbronchodilator FEV(1) in patients with recent-onset, persistent asthma, and reduced the loss of lung function over time.

Early intervention with budesonide in mild persistent asthma: a randomised, double-blind trial.

BACKGROUND: Although inhaled glucocorticosteroids are recommended for persistent asthma, their long-term effect on recent onset, mild, persistent asthma has yet to be established. METHODS: We did a randomised, double-blind clinical trial in 7241 patients in 32 countries to assess the effects of budesonide in patients who had had mild persistent asthma for less than 2 years and who had not had previous regular treatment with glucocorticosteroids. Patients aged 5-66 years received either budesonide or placebo once daily for 3 years in addition to their usual asthma medications. The daily budesonide dose was 400 microg, or 200 microg for children younger than 11 years. The primary outcome was time to first severe asthma-related event, and analysis was by intention to treat. FINDINGS: 198 of 3568 patients on placebo and 117 of 3597 on budesonide had at least one severe asthma exacerbation; hazard ratio 0.56 (95% CI 0.45-0.71, p<0.0001). Patients on budesonide had fewer courses of systemic corticosteroids and more symptom-free days than did those on placebo. Compared with placebo, budesonide increased postbronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) from baseline by 1.48% (p<0.0001) after 1 year and by 0.88% (p=0.0005) after 3 years (expressed as percent of the predicted value). The corresponding increase in prebronchodilator FEV1 was 2.24% after 1 year and 1.71% after 3 years (p<0.0001 at both timepoints). The effect of treatment on all outcome variables was independent of the baseline lung function (prebronchodilator or postbronchodilator) or baseline medication. In children younger than 11 years, 3-year growth was reduced in the budesonide group by 1.34 cm. The reduction was greatest in the first year of treatment (0.58 cm) than years 2 and 3 (0.43 cm and 0.33 cm, respectively). INTERPRETATION: Long-term, once-daily treatment with low-dose budesonide decreases the risk of severe exacerbations and improves asthma control in patients with mild persistent asthma of recent onset.