Abstract
Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. And evidence shows that COPD exacerbations are a frequent cause of hospital admission, as an indicator of a poor prognosis and elevated mortality.
Objective: To study smoking habits among patients hospitalised/admitted for COPD exacerbations in a conventional hospital ward.
Material and methods:We carried out a retrospective descriptive study by reviewing discharge reports of patients admitted to our centre during the period of September 2010 to September 2011. We analysed epidemiological, clinical and smoking history.
Results: We studied 196 patients, of whom 180 men (91.8%) and 16 women (8.2%) with a mean age of 77 years. 41% have a diagnosis of severe COPD. The most frequent co morbidity found is cardiovascular. 18% associated cancer. The prevalence of current smoking is 26.5%, 52 patients continue to smoke including 47 males (27%) and 5 women (31%). The ex-smoker population represents 68.9% (131) while non-smokers comprise 1.5% (3). 73% of male smokers have a moderate to severe COPD degree. Pneumonia is present in 26% of smokers, (14), while in ex-smokers it is present in 23% (33). A total of 37 patients (18.8%) were readmitted within a year, of which 62% are severe COPD (28); 9 of them were still smoking.
Conclusions: 1) Smoking is a major factor in COPD exacerbations. 2) There is a high prevalence of COPD exacerbations requiring admission to a hospital unit in those patients who continue to smoke. 3) Most smokers admitted for exacerbation of COPD were included in the severe COPD group. 4) There are 37 readmissions within a year, representing almost one fifth of all COPD exacerbations, 9 of whom continue smoking.
- © 2012 ERS
