Use of spirometry and recording of smoking habits of COPD patients increased in primary health care during national COPD programme

BMC Family Practice

Research Article

Anne Pietinalho¹  Kari Liippo¹  Tuula Vasankari²  Seppo YT Junnila³  Kalle Lertola⁴ 

[1] Finnish Lung Health Association, Sibeliuksenkatu 11 A 1, FI-00250, Helsinki, Finland;Finnish Lung Health Association, Sibeliuksenkatu 11 A 1, FI-00250, Helsinki, Finland;Department of Respiratory Medicine, Turku University Hospital, Paimio Hospital, Alvar Aallon tie 275, FI-21540, Preitilä, Finland;Salo Healthcare Center, Sairaalantie 9, FI-24130, Salo, Finland;Turku University, FI-20014, Turun Yliopisto, Finland;

关键词: COPD;    diagnosis;    primary healthcare;    respiratory symptoms;    spirometry;    smoking;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2296-12-97

 received in 2011-02-07, accepted in 2011-09-21,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIn Finland, a national programme for COPD prevention and treatment was developed in 1998. The main goals of the programme were to diagnose COPD as early as possible and to encourage people to quit smoking. The role of primary health care was emphasized in the programme. Our aim was to investigate the use of spirometry and recording of smoking habits of COPD patients in primary health care before and during the COPD programme.MethodsWe compared patients with respiratory symptoms or diseases visiting primary health care during 1997 (before programme) and 2002 (during programme). Patients with respiratory symptoms were divided into two groups: COPD patients and "others". Patient records were thoroughly investigated and data retrieved from them.ResultsThere was a significant increase in the whole study group from 8.0% to 38.9% in the use of spirometry (p < 0.001). This increase was significant both in the COPD group (from 32.0% to 79.6%, p < 0.001) and "others" (from 5.6% to 32.8%, p < 0.001). Written information on smoking habits in patient records increased from 16.6% of all patients in 1997 to 53.2% in 2002 (p < 0.001), and in COPD group from 45.0% to 84.3% (p < 0.001).ConclusionsWe observed a significant increase in the use of spirometry and knowledge of smoking habits in COPD patients, which may be a result of the Finnish national COPD programme.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Vasankari et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011