COPD mortality decreased in US in recent years
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Mortality from COPD among U.S. adults decreased from 2004 to 2018, but significant disparities remain, with higher mortality rates in men and Black women, according to a study published in Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
“To the benefit of most Americans, COPD mortality has steadily declined between 2004 and 2018,” Baharan Zarrabian, MD, from the department of medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and Mehdi Mirsaeidi, MD, MPH, associate professor in the department of medicine and clinical public health sciences in the division of pulmonary, critical care, sleep and allergy at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, wrote. “Although it’s imperative to recognize that there remain important cohorts in the U.S. population that have not secured that same deceleration.”
The researchers analyzed death certificate data from the CDC’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiology Research (WONDER) system from 2004 to 2018 among U.S. adults aged at least 40 years. Researchers assessed trends in annual COPD mortality rates and death counts from influenza and pneumococcal disease with COPD.
COPD mortality decreased from 2004 to 2017. The annual percentage change was –0.6% (95% CI, –0.9 to –0.3) and declined from 72.9 per 100,000 population to 67.4 per 100,000 population, according to the results.
COPD mortality was higher among men than women. The annual percentage change among men was –1.2% (95% CI, –1.5 to –0.9) during the study period. COPD mortality among female was unchanged, according to the researchers.
COPD mortality increased among Black women over time. The annual percentage change was 1.3% (95% CI, 0.9-1.6).
During this period, the number of influenza deaths with COPD increased (annual percentage change, 19.58%; 95% CI, 6.9-33.8). According to the researchers, the increase in influenza mortality was parallel to decreased rates of influenza vaccination according to population survey data (annual percentage change, –5.1% (95% CI, –8.2 to –2) from 2011 to 2018. The researchers reported similar findings for patients with COPD; 451.4 per 1,000 survey respondents in 2011 reported influenza vaccination compared with 352 per 1,000 respondents in 2018 (annual percentage change, –1.8 (95% CI, –3.3 to –0.2). Rates of pneumococcal vaccination during the study period were unchanged, while deaths from pneumococcal disease with COPD decreased (annual percentage change, –10.1% (95% CI, –16.6 to –3.1), according to the results.
Further research should include community-based studies to improve diagnosis and promoting pneumonia and flu vaccinations in all ethnicities especially Black women, Mirsaeidi told Healio.
“There remain opportunities to further reduce COPD-specific death, but these interventions need to target disparities often experienced by African American females,” the researchers wrote. “Furthermore, interventions that increase influenza vaccination uptake can further contribute to decreasing mortality from COPD.”
For more information:
Mehdi Mirsaeidi, MD, MPH, can be reached at msm249@med.miami.edu.