Risk Factors

About 10 million adults are diagnosed with chronic obstructive lung disease each year, with about two million of them having emphysema. (Because emphysema and chronic bronchitis so often occur together, it is difficult to determine the number of emphysema patients versus those with chronic bronchitis.) Experts estimated, however, that more than half of Americans with impaired lung function go undiagnosed. Many patients, even if their symptoms are severe, regard their condition as a natural part of aging or due to lack of fitness and fail to seek medical evaluation.

General Risk Factors for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease

The typical COLD patient is a smoker or ex-smoker with a pack-a-day habit of more than 20 years who is over 50. Lung function gets worse as people get older.

Text Continues Below

---

According to a major 2002 government report, since 1987, more women than men have reported symptoms of COLD. Furthermore, the death rate from COLD has increased dramatically in women since the early 1970s, and in 2000 the number of women who died from these lung diseases surpassed deaths in men. The lungs of female smokers, in fact, appear to be more susceptible to the effects of smoking and pollution than those of men. Studies suggest that COLD is underdiagnosed in both genders, but especially in women. Caucasians are more susceptible to emphysema than their African American peers.

On the positive side, the proportion of adults under 55 who are diagnosed with mild to moderate COLD has been declining, indicating that the high death rate will level out, particularly as more people stop smoking.In particular, the rate of COLD in young African Americans is declining significantly. (The rate in younger Caucasians is not decreasing as dramatically.)

Smoking