TY - JOUR T1 - Impact of chronic airflow obstruction in a working population JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 1227 LP - 1233 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00089607 VL - 31 IS - 6 AU - N. Roche AU - F. Dalmay AU - T. Perez AU - C. Kuntz AU - A. Vergnenègre AU - F. Neukirch AU - J-P. Giordanella AU - G. Huchon Y1 - 2008/06/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/31/6/1227.abstract N2 - Data on the individual and collective impact of chronic airflow obstruction at a population level are scarce. In a nationwide survey, dyspnoea, quality of life and missed working days were compared between subjects with and without spirometrically diagnosed chronic airflow obstruction. Subjects aged ≥45 yrs were recruited in French health prevention centres (n = 5,008). Results of pre-bronchodilator spirometry and questionnaires (European Community Respiratory Health Survey-derived questionnaire and European quality of life five-dimension questionnaire) were collected. Adequate datasets were available for 4,764 subjects aged 60±10 yrs (only 2% were aged ≥80 yrs). The prevalence of airflow obstruction (forced expiratory volume in one second/forced vital capacity of <0.70) was 7.5%. The vast majority (93.9%) of cases had not been diagnosed previously. Health status was significantly influenced by dyspnoea. Both were associated with the number of missed working days. Despite mild-to-moderate severity, subjects with chronic airflow obstruction exhibited more dyspnoea, poorer quality of life and higher numbers of missed working days (mean 6.71 versus 1.45 days·patient−1·yr−1 in patients without airflow obstruction, for the population with no known heart or lung disease). In conclusion, even mild-to-moderate airflow obstruction is associated with an impaired health status, which represents an additional argument in favour of early detection in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. ER -