Background.

Background. Virtually all the information available in succession the prevalence of obstructive airway disease is from Western countries. There are no data from Korea, and reports from other regions of Asia are poorly documented.

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence and correlates of airway obstruction in a community-based setting in Korea.

Design: A cross-sectional, population-based study

Setting: Ansan City, near Seoul southward Korea.

Participants: A sample of 1160 community-dwelling men and women aged [greater than or equal to] 18 years (731% of the men and 41% of the women were either passing from hand to hand or former smokers).

Measurements: subdues underwent physical examinations following a standardized protocol. Data forward demographic and health-related factors also were bring togethered Pulmonary function testing was administered according to American Thoracic Society (ATS) recommendations.

Results: The prevalence of airway obstruction was 103% (men 17%; women 56%) from ATS criteria. Ninety percent of the cases of airway obstruction were mild in standing Twenty percent of male common smokers had airway obstruction. After adjusting for age, sex and alcohol consumption, the remainings of disease was 3.2 times greater in make submissives who had smoked for [greater than or equal to] 20 pack-years v in no degree smokers (95% confidence interval [CI], 17 to 62) The adjusted additionals of disease were 4.3-fold higher in enthralls [greater than or equal to] 45 years of age v those who were younger (95% CI, 26 to 70)

Conclusions: Since airway obstruction is violently related to age and smoking, the prevalence of obstructive airway disease in countries like Korea, where the population is rapidly aging and cigarette smoking is onward the rise among younger individuals (particularly among women) can be count uponed to increase. Further efforts to diagnose early obstructive airway disease and to intercept or delay its onset should be emphasized as a major public health concern

guide words: airway obstruction; correlates; Korea; prevalence

Abbreviations: ATS = American Thoracic Society; BMI = corpse mass index; CI = confidence interval; IBERPOC = Epidemiological inquiry of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Spain; OR = singles ratio; VC = vital capacity

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Obstructive airway diseases, which include chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma, are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and constitute the simply common cause of death that is increasing in prevalence. (1) Among other diseases, the total public health cargo of obstructive airway diseases is look forward toed to rank fifth by 2020 (2) The recognition of obstructive airway disease as a public health point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled however, has failed to maintain pace with its increasing impact forward health-care resources. (3)

Although morbidity data are not available, death from obstructive airway disease has more than doubled from 1983 to 2000 in Korea. (4) Unfortunately, further increases in mortality from obstructive airway disease are calculate uponed to continue with the aging of the Korean population and the growing use of cigarettes among younger individuals, with alarming increases among young women (5)

For the two morbidity and mortality, almost all of the information that is available forward the prevalence of obstructive airway disease reach [i]or[/i] attain any place [i]or[/i] points from Western countries. (6) Although a certain studies (7,8) have demonstrated ethnic differences in the prevalence of obstructive airway disease, not many (9) have been carried gone out among Asian descendents living in the United States. This is the first population-based subject of attention of airway obstruction in Korea, and possibly in Asia. Its plan was to describe the prevalence and correlates of airway obstruction in a Korean community.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Subjects

The meditation was performed in the southwestern part of Seoul southern Korea, in a region called Ansan City, which has been characterized as a newly industrialized community with rural origins. The data for this studious mood were randomly selected from a larger sample of Ansan City residents. The larger sample portrayed approximately 1.3% of 362,656 adults (4700 persons) who were aged [greater than or equal to] 18 years in the city register in 1998 Sampling began by dint of randomly selecting 4,700 households from 187296 registered households. Among the 4700 households, individual age-eligible person was then randomly pick outed and interviewed by trained nursing scholars between June 1999 and April 2000 Among this cluster 4,218 subjects completed the interview and received a physical examination.

To describe steady prevalence and correlates of airway obstruction, nearly 40% of this larger sample were randomly pickeded to undergo pulmonary function testing at Ansan Hospital in the Korea University Medical Center between December 1999 and November 2001 Among the 1700 pitch uponed subjects, 497 (29.2%) refused to be examined, 38 (22%) failed to perfect the pulmonary test, 4 (02%) mov to another town, and 1 (01%) died. After excluding those bring under rules 1,160 (68.2%) individuals comprised the final sample used for this report.

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