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Variability of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease key epidemiological data in Europe: systematic review
BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is predicted to become a major cause of death worldwide. Studies on the variability in the estimates of key epidemiological parameters of COPD may contribute to better assessment of the burden of this disease and to helpful guidance for future...
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2011
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037331/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21244657 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-9-7 |
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author | Atsou, Kokuvi Chouaid, Christos Hejblum, Gilles |
author_facet | Atsou, Kokuvi Chouaid, Christos Hejblum, Gilles |
author_sort | Atsou, Kokuvi |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is predicted to become a major cause of death worldwide. Studies on the variability in the estimates of key epidemiological parameters of COPD may contribute to better assessment of the burden of this disease and to helpful guidance for future research and public policies. In the present study, we examined differences in the main epidemiological characteristics of COPD derived from studies across countries of the European Union, focusing on prevalence, severity, frequency of exacerbations and mortality, as well as on differences between the studies' methods. METHODS: This systematic review was based on a search for the relevant literature in the Science Citation Index database via the Web of Science and on COPD mortality rates issued from national statistics. Analysis was finally based on 65 articles and Eurostat COPD mortality data for 21 European countries. RESULTS: Epidemiological characteristics of COPD varied widely from country to country. For example, prevalence estimates ranged between 2.1% and 26.1%, depending on the country, the age group and the methods used. Likewise, COPD mortality rates ranged from 7.2 to 36.1 per 10(5 )inhabitants. The methods used to estimate these epidemiological parameters were highly variable in terms of the definition of COPD, severity scales, methods of investigation and target populations. Nevertheless, to a large extent, several recent international guidelines or research initiatives, such as GOLD, BOLD or PLATINO, have boosted a substantial standardization of methodology in data collection and have resulted in the availability of more comparable epidemiological estimates across countries. On the basis of such standardization, severity estimates as well as prevalence estimates present much less variation across countries. The contribution of these recent guidelines and initiatives is outlined, as are the problems remaining in arriving at more accurate COPD epidemiological estimates across European countries. CONCLUSIONS: The accuracy of COPD epidemiological parameters is important for guiding decision making with regard to preventive measures, interventions and patient management in various health care systems. Therefore, the recent initiatives for standardizing data collection should be enhanced to result in COPD epidemiological estimates of improved quality. Moreover, establishing international guidelines for reporting research on COPD may also constitute a major contribution. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-3037331 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2011 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-30373312011-02-11 Variability of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease key epidemiological data in Europe: systematic review Atsou, Kokuvi Chouaid, Christos Hejblum, Gilles BMC Med Research Article BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is predicted to become a major cause of death worldwide. Studies on the variability in the estimates of key epidemiological parameters of COPD may contribute to better assessment of the burden of this disease and to helpful guidance for future research and public policies. In the present study, we examined differences in the main epidemiological characteristics of COPD derived from studies across countries of the European Union, focusing on prevalence, severity, frequency of exacerbations and mortality, as well as on differences between the studies' methods. METHODS: This systematic review was based on a search for the relevant literature in the Science Citation Index database via the Web of Science and on COPD mortality rates issued from national statistics. Analysis was finally based on 65 articles and Eurostat COPD mortality data for 21 European countries. RESULTS: Epidemiological characteristics of COPD varied widely from country to country. For example, prevalence estimates ranged between 2.1% and 26.1%, depending on the country, the age group and the methods used. Likewise, COPD mortality rates ranged from 7.2 to 36.1 per 10(5 )inhabitants. The methods used to estimate these epidemiological parameters were highly variable in terms of the definition of COPD, severity scales, methods of investigation and target populations. Nevertheless, to a large extent, several recent international guidelines or research initiatives, such as GOLD, BOLD or PLATINO, have boosted a substantial standardization of methodology in data collection and have resulted in the availability of more comparable epidemiological estimates across countries. On the basis of such standardization, severity estimates as well as prevalence estimates present much less variation across countries. The contribution of these recent guidelines and initiatives is outlined, as are the problems remaining in arriving at more accurate COPD epidemiological estimates across European countries. CONCLUSIONS: The accuracy of COPD epidemiological parameters is important for guiding decision making with regard to preventive measures, interventions and patient management in various health care systems. Therefore, the recent initiatives for standardizing data collection should be enhanced to result in COPD epidemiological estimates of improved quality. Moreover, establishing international guidelines for reporting research on COPD may also constitute a major contribution. BioMed Central 2011-01-18 /pmc/articles/PMC3037331/ /pubmed/21244657 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-9-7 Text en Copyright ©2011 Atsou et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Atsou, Kokuvi Chouaid, Christos Hejblum, Gilles Variability of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease key epidemiological data in Europe: systematic review |
title | Variability of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease key epidemiological data in Europe: systematic review |
title_full | Variability of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease key epidemiological data in Europe: systematic review |
title_fullStr | Variability of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease key epidemiological data in Europe: systematic review |
title_full_unstemmed | Variability of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease key epidemiological data in Europe: systematic review |
title_short | Variability of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease key epidemiological data in Europe: systematic review |
title_sort | variability of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease key epidemiological data in europe: systematic review |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037331/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21244657 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-9-7 |
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