TY - JOUR T1 - Predictors of dyspnoea prevalence: results from the BOLD study JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 1610 LP - 1620 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00036813 VL - 43 IS - 6 AU - Rune Grønseth AU - William M. Vollmer AU - Jon A. Hardie AU - Inga Sif Ólafsdóttir AU - Bernd Lamprecht AU - A. Sonia Buist AU - Louisa Gnatiuc AU - Amund Gulsvik AU - Ane Johannessen AU - Paul Enright Y1 - 2014/06/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/43/6/1610.abstract N2 - Dyspnoea is a cardinal symptom for cardiorespiratory diseases. No study has assessed worldwide variation in dyspnoea prevalence or predictors of dyspnoea. We used cross-sectional data from population-based samples in 15 countries of the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study to estimate prevalence of dyspnoea in the full sample, as well as in an a priori defined low-risk group (few risk factors or dyspnoea-associated diseases). Dyspnoea was defined by the modified Medical Research Council questions. We used ordered logistic regression analysis to study the association of dyspnoea with site, sex, age, education, smoking habits, low/high body mass index, self-reported disease and spirometry results. Of the 9484 participants, 27% reported any dyspnoea. In the low-risk subsample (n=4329), 16% reported some dyspnoea. In multivariate analyses, all covariates were correlated to dyspnoea, but only 13% of dyspnoea variation was explained. Females reported more dyspnoea than males (odds ratio ∼2.1). When forced vital capacity fell below 60% of predicted, dyspnoea was much more likely. There was considerable geographical variation in dyspnoea, even when we adjusted for known risk factors and spirometry results. We were only able to explain 13% of dyspnoea variation. Known predictors and risk factors can only explain 13% of dyspnoea variation http://ow.ly/tHS0H ER -