WEDNESDAY, June 29 (HealthDay News) -- The prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remained stable in the United States between 1998 and 2009, according to a report published online June 29 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
Lara J. Akinbami, M.D., and Xiang Liu, from the CDC's NCHS, reported trends in COPD prevalence, hospitalization, and death rates, and detailed estimates for population subgroups in the United States between 1998 and 2009. All estimates were obtained from the CDC's NCHS data, which was comprised of data from the National Health Interview Survey, National Hospital Discharge Survey, and the National Vital Statistics System.
The investigators found that the prevalence of COPD remained stable from 1998 to 2009, but it was higher among women than men. COPD was more prevalent among older age groups, and was highest for women aged 65 to 74 years (10.4 percent) and men aged 75 to 84 (11.2 percent). COPD prevalence is higher among Puerto Rican and non-Hispanic white adults than among non-Hispanic black and Mexican-American adults. It is also more prevalent among adults with a family income below the poverty level compared to those with family income which is at least 200 percent of the poverty level (8.3 versus 4.3 percent). COPD prevalence in the East South Central U.S. Census division was considerably higher than in the Pacific division (7.5 versus 3.9 percent). Overall, COPD hospitalization rates decreased for men and women, but the death rates decreased only for men.
"The prevalence of COPD did not change significantly from 1998 through 2009," the authors write.
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