Significantly increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease amongst adults with predominantly mild congenital heart disease

Adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) face increased risk of various comorbid diseases. Previous work on lung dysfunction in this population has mainly focused on restrictive lung disease, in patients with severe CHD phenotypes. We examined the association of mild CHD with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the UK Biobank (UKB). Electronic health records (EHR) were used to identify 3385 CHD cases and 479,765 healthy controls in UKB, before performing a case–control analysis over a 20-year study period for a total of > 9.5 M person-years of follow-up. Our analysis showed that UKB participants with CHD are at substantially greater risk of developing COPD than healthy controls (8.7% vs 3.1% prevalence, unadjusted OR 2.98, 95% CI 2.63, 3.36, P = 1.40e−53). Slightly increased rates of smoking were observed amongst CHD cases, however the association with COPD was shown to be robust to adjustment for smoking and other factors known to modulate COPD risk within a multivariable-adjusted Cox regression framework (fully adjusted HR 2.21, 95% CI 1.97, 2.48, P = 5.5e−41). Care for adults with CHD should aim to mitigate their increased risk of COPD, possibly via increased smoking cessation support.