Younger adults with COPD experience significant morbidity, excess mortality
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Younger adults with COPD have elevated rates of health care utilization and excess mortality, researchers reported.
“Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is generally considered a disease of older adults but can also affect younger patients. However, less attention has been paid to describing the clinical features of this age group,” Alina Julia Blazer, MD, MSc, FRCPC, clinical and research fellow in asthma and airway disease at the University of Toronto, said during a presentation at the American Thoracic Society International Conference. “It is commonly assumed that COPD diagnosed earlier in life can be equated with a milder form of disease. However, this has also not been fully examined in a real-world population.”
Researchers conducted a longitudinal population cohort study of all younger adults aged 35 to 55 years with COPD in Ontario, Canada. The researchers evaluated outcomes including mortality and health service utilization from 2006 to 2016 in younger adults with COPD compared with younger adults without COPD and older adults aged at least 65 years with COPD.
Rates of all-cause ED visits among younger adults with COPD exceeded rates seen in older adults without COPD, and approached rates seen in older adults with COPD, Blazer said during the presentation. Younger adults with COPD had a threefold increased rate of all-cause hospitalization compared with younger adults without COPD.
Older adults with COPD had a 2.5-fold increased mortality rate compared with older adults without COPD, whereas younger adults with COPD had a fivefold increased mortality rate compared with younger adults without COPD.
“This study provides further evidence that so-called early COPD is not necessarily a benign entity and suggests that we should focus clinical efforts on identifying COPD in younger patients in the hope that earlier intervention may improve your current health, reduce resource utilization and prevent further disease progression,” Blazer said.