Journal of UOEH
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The prevalence and mortality of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is expected to increase in the future throughout the world. Little data is available on the prevalence of airflow limitation in Japan, especially on medical check-up. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of airflow limitation in Japanese subjects during medical check-ups. ⋯ In females, the prevalence of mild, moderate, severe and very severe airflow limitation was 2.67, 0.63, 0.02 and 0.00%, respectively. Only 10 cases with airflow limitation reported a previous diagnosis of COPD. These results suggest that screening spirometry during medical check-ups can identify many COPD patients not aware of this disease and highlight the need for enhanced screening efforts, intervention and treatment.