An Epidemiological Overview of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: What Can Real-Life Data Tell Us about Disease Management?

ABSTRACT

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common condition, associated with increasing age and smoking exposure. COPD is a leading cause of morbidity, mortality and health care expenditure worldwide; yet, only 10–15% of all cases are identified medically. Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is responsible for about 1% of COPD cases but is also largely under-recognised, leading to diagnostic delay and missed treatment opportunities in patients who remain undetected. New evidence has recently highlighted the extent of overlap between COPD and bronchiectasis and the implications of comorbidity on clinical course and mortality. COPD with comorbid bronchiectasis deserves to be given research priority. This article overviews the epidemiology of COPD and examines the implications of overlap between COPD and AATD and between COPD and bronchiectasis.

KEYWORDS:

• Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency
• bronchiectasis
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• epidemiology
• real life

Declaration of interest

J. B. S. has received pharmaceutical company grants from GlaxoSmithKline in 2011 and Chiesi in 2012 via CIMERA his former home institution and in 2014–2016 from Linde via Hospital Universitario de La Princesa.

J. B. S. has participated in speaking activities, advisory committees and consultancies during the period 2011–2016 sponsored by: Almirall, AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Chiesi, ERS, Gebro Pharma, Grifols, GlaxoSmithKline, Linde, Lipopharma, Mundipharma, Novartis, Pfizer, RiRL, Rovi, Separ and Takeda.

Editorial assistance was provided by Content Ed Net (Madrid, Spain) with funding from Grifols SA (Barcelona Spain).