2Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Göğüs Hastalıkları Anabilim Dalı AFYONKARAHİSAR
3Atatürk Göğüs Hastalıkları ve Göğüs Cerrahisi Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi Göğüs Hastalıkları Kliniği ANKARA Introduction: In this study, investigating the relationship between COPD and respiratory exposures were aimed.
Materials and Method: For the study group, 711 patients who were admitted to our hospital with a diagnosis of COPD between May 2009 and June 2010 were included. For the control group, 246 volunteer patients with a diagnosis other than COPD were included. A questionnaire including questions about sociodemographic characteristics, environmental and occupational exposures, patterns of tobacco use and passive-tobacco-smoke exposure was filled with face-to-face interview.
Results: The mean age was 62.7±10.8 for COPD and 64.9±10.9 years for the control group (p>0.05). The average monthly-income-levels and the educational-status of the patients in the COPD group were significantly lower than those in the control group (p=0.015 and p=0.002, respectively). In the COPD group the number of people dealing with farming were greater compared to the control group (p<0.001). Tandoor and fireplace were more commonly used by female patients with COPD (p=0.034 and p=0.002, respectively). When the fuels were analyzed, dried dung (56.1%) was found to be more commonly used by patients with COPD (p<0.001). Duration of smoking and cigarette-consumption was significantly higher in the COPD group. Exposure to passive smoke was significantly higher in the COPD group (p<0.001). Effective risk factors in the development of COPD were environmental exposures (OR 2.314), increased cigarette- consumption (pack years) (OR 1.011) and increased duration of exposure to passive smoking (OR 1022).
Conclusion: For the development of COPD, in addition to smoking, environmental and occupational exposure to pollutants including use of biomass-fuels and passive exposure to tobacco smoke are important risk factors, and prevention of exposure to these pollutants could impede the development of COPD significantly.
Keywords : Pulmonary Disease; Chronic Obstructive; Tobacco Products; Second-hand Smoking; Environmental Exposure; Occupational Exposure