Arvind C.1, Ragul B.2, Loknath B.3
BACKGROUND
Active smoking is responsible for nearly 70 % of the cases of chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD) in developed countries and is much lesser in the
developing nations. Though the remaining are attributed to environmental tobacco
exposures, occupational factors and genetic factors, there are not enough studies
demonstrating the causation. This study is to identify the clinical features of neversmoker
patients with COPD and the prevalence of environmental exposures in
COPD patients.
METHODS
An observational cross-sectional study was conducted from Nov. 2018 to Jan.
2019. All patients above 18 years with respiratory symptoms and satisfying the
following diagnostic criteria for COPD were included. All patients included in the
study must be never-smokers. Control group of 20 healthy individuals were
included. A detailed demographic profile and medical history was obtained from
all participants. Pulmonary function assessment was done for all. Chi-square test
was used for analysing data.
RESULTS
Cough was the most common symptom (88.2 %) in these patients. Dyspnoea was
present in 21 patients (41.17 %). In the study participants, 36 were exposed to
environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or passive smoking. Out of them 29 patients
(80.5 %) were exposed to passive smoking at home, 15 patients (41.7 %) were
exposed to passive smoking at work and 8 patients (22.2 %) at both places. The
number of patients who practiced firewood cooking was 31 (40.8 %). The
relationship seen between the test and control group was found to be statistically
significant.
CONCLUSIONS
COPD in never smokers is more common in females compared to males. Cough is
the most common symptom in this subset of patients with COPD. There is a high
rate of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and firewood smoke in neversmokers
who develop COPD.
