Sex discrepancies in COPD patients and burden of the disease in females: a nationwide study in Greece (Greek Obstructive Lung Disease Epidemiology and health ecoNomics: GOLDEN study)

• Published in: International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 2014-01, Vol.9 (default), p.203-213
• Main Authors: Papaioannou, Andriana I, Bania, Eleni, Alexopoulos, Evangelos C, Mitsiki, Eirini, Malli, Foteini, Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absenteeism; Age; Age Factors; Aged; Body mass index; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Comorbidity; Cost of Illness; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; Diagnosis; Disease Progression; Economic aspects; Epidemiology; Family physicians; Female; Females; Gender differences; Greece - epidemiology; Health aspects; Health Care Costs; Health economics; Health Status Disparities; Health Surveys; Hospitals; Humans; Hypoxia; Incidence; Intensive care; Judgment sampling; Lung diseases; Lung diseases, Obstructive; Male; Medicine; Middle Aged; Mortality; Original Research; Patients; Physicians; Prevalence; Primary care; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - diagnosis; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - economics; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - epidemiology; Response rates; Risk Factors; Sex Distribution; Sex Factors; Sick Leave; Smoking; Smoking - adverse effects; Smoking - epidemiology; Spirometry; Time Factors; Women; Womens health
• ISSN: 1178-2005; 1176-9106; 1178-2005
• DOI: 10.2147/COPD.S52500

The prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in females appears to be increasing. Recent studies have revealed that the percentage of women with COPD in Greece is approximately 12.5%. To evaluate the burden of COPD among males and females in Greece through a nationwide cross-sectional survey and to explore sex differences regarding functional characteristics and exacerbation frequency. Data collection was completed in a 6-month period. The present study followed a nationwide sampling approach of respiratory medicine physicians. The sampling approach included three steps: 1) estimation of expected incidence and prevalence of COPD cases in each prefecture of Greece and in total; 2) estimation of expected incidence of COPD cases per physician in each prefecture; and 3) creation of a frame of three different sampling zones. Following this sampling, data were provided by 199 respiratory physicians. The participating physicians provided data from 6,125 COPD patients. Female patients represented 28.7% of the study participants. Female COPD patients were, on average, 5 years younger than male COPD patients. Never smokers accounted for 9.4% within female patients, compared to 2.7% of males (P