Prevalence and associated factors of COPD among Aboriginal peoples in Canada: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background

COPD among Aboriginal peoples in Canada is a major public health concern. This study was conducted in order to determine the prevalence and association between certain risk factors and COPD among the 35-year-old or older Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study. It uses data from Statistics Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS), 2012. It consists of 8,117 self-identified Aboriginal peoples, aged 35 years old or older from all Canadian provinces and territories. The study outcomes centered on evaluating the prevalence and associated factors of COPD.

Results

This study found that 6.80% of the participants self-reported having COPD. Results of the logistic regression analysis show that COPD was significantly higher among daily smokers (odds ratio [OR], 2.28; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.65–3.14), aged 55 years or older (OR, 3.04; 95% CI, 2.14–4.30), who earned $5,000–$9,999 per annum (OR, 4.21; 95% CI, 2.39–7.41) and needed health care over the past 12 months and did not receive it (OR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.27–2.65).

Conclusion

The findings of our study show that COPD is strongly associated with Aboriginal peoples, who are older, smoke, have a low socioeconomic status (SES) and do not have access to health care when needed. Clinicians, health care professionals, medical/public health organizations, researchers and patients will greatly benefit from additional research in this common, serious and often overlooked disease among Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Keywords:

• COPD
• smoking
• socioeconomic status
• Aboriginal peoples
• Canada

Acknowledgments

The APS is a national survey of First Nations people living off reserve, Métis and Inuit living in Canada. It is a product of Statistics Canada. The views and results presented herein are those of the authors/authorized users and not those of Statistics Canada. We gratefully acknowledge Statistics Canada for kindly granting us access to the microdata files. This research was supported in part by a matching collaborative grant from the Lung Association of Saskatchewan and the School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan. The APS was implemented with the cooperation, support and funding of Statistics Canada. The publishing of analysis and results from research using any of the data products in research communications such as scholarly papers and journals is permitted by Statistics Canada and exempt from ethics approval because it relies on the use of Statistics Canada public files and secondary analysis of anonymous data (Tri-Council Policy Statement, articles 2.2 and 2.4, respectively). Participation in this survey was voluntary.

Author contributions

YB, JM, RM, SE and NMKS contributed to the concept and design of this study and undertook data analysis and interpretation. All authors contributed toward drafting and critically revising the paper and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.