Shu Y, Wang W. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2020;15:3417–3422.
The Editor-in-chief and Publisher of International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease wish to retract the published article. Concerns were raised to us by the The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) investigation team. TILDA did not measure the biomarker human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) or disaggregate data on lung disease sufficiently to identify COPD as reported in the article. Thus, the observations and findings reported in the study were not supported by the TILDA dataset.
Despite several attempts, the authors could not be contacted for an explanation and the decision was made to retract the article.
Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.