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Patient Age, Smoking Influences COPD Severity
Age and smoking duration are related to the severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) symptoms, according to a new report. Investigators from Seoul, South Korea, said they identified more than 17,000 COPD patients between 2005 and 2015 to analyze the effect of aging on the occurrence of cigarette smoking-induced COPD.
Investigators evaluated patients’ smoking status using a lifestyle intervention program and then measured the occurrence of COPD using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
The study found that with the decrease in tobacco use, may decrease the prevalence of COPD. However, it does not appear to be the case worldwide.
Additionally, the economic burden of COPD continues to increase. In Korea, healthcare costs per person were more than three times higher in patients with high-grade COPD than those without it: $3,744 versus $1,183.
The investigators divided their study participants into four groups: young age/short smoking duration; young age/long smoking duration; old age/short duration; old age/long duration. The age line was younger than 50, or greater than 60 years, while smoking duration was short if it was less than five years and long if it was greater than 20 years.
From there, the investigators were left with 627 eligible COPD patients. The investigators used body mass index (BMI), the number of cigarette packs per day smoked (multiplied by the number of years smoked), and current smoking status (current or ex-smoker) as control variables.
Male COPD patients outnumbered the females by three to one. There were more mid-level severity COPD patients (such as level two or three) than there were severe patients (level four), researchers said. There were also fewer current smokers than ex-smokers (298 compared to 329, respectively). The average length of smoking duration was 13 years.
The investigators found that age had significant positive main effects. With increasing age, the severity of COPD increased. The young age/short duration patients experienced less severe COPD than the young age/long duration patient group.
Additionally, as patients smoked 20 years longer, they experienced malfunction of lungs and more severe COPD, which makes sense.
“The combined effect of smoking duration and age were found highly significant among subjects over 20 years aged smoking group for COPD severity,” the researchers reported.
The effects of age and smoking duration when combined were also a factor in COPD severity. Subjects experienced more severe COPD as they lived longer while smoking, and the effect was aggravated when aging was combined, they explained.
“Previous studies have demonstrated that the prevalence of COPD and its risk factors had no association, but there seemed to be a trend among patients who smoked—they were not sensitive to air condition or environmental factors, the study authors explained,” the researchers reported.
“Our data show that COPD patients exhibit aging and smoking duration related severity,” the authors concluded. “These two characteristics were significantly affected on the lung function of COPD patients. Especially, the smoking duration is exaggerated in the presence of old age for older COPD patients.”
The study, “Effects of Aging and Smoking Duration on Cigarette Smoke-Induced COPD Severity,” was published in the Journal of Korean Medical Science.
