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Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases
Mortality Rate
U.S. age-adjusted death rates for chronic from 1950 until
1988, after which rates remained relatively stable (53).
- Between 1980 and 1992, death rates increased among older
age groups, while among the younger age cohorts death rates remained stable or declined (53).
- Since 1980 the largest increases in death rates for Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) have been among females (+76 percent)
- And among black men (+19 percent),
- But the highest rates are still seen among white males (53).
- Overall, male death rates are about twice those of females (53).
This broad cause of death includes emphysema, asthma, and
bronchitis, but less than 30 percent of deaths attributed to COPD during 1988-92 were
coded to these specific causes.
Cigarette smoking and coal dust exposure are established
risk factors for COPD (98). Other occupational dust and fume
exposures, childhood lung disease, passive cigarette smoke exposure, prenatal cigarette
smoke exposure (99), and low socioeconomic status as related to
poor housing (98) are suggested risk factors. Familial aggregation
of COPD has been noted, but it is not clear whether this is due to genetic predisposition
or to shared environmental factors, such as dust or passive smoking (99).
Age-adjusted death rates are highest in the Mountain
regions for whites and the South Atlantic regions for blacks. Rates are also high in other
areas depending on race, sex, and age; for example, rates among older white males are high
in the East South Central region, similar to patterns for lung cancer death rates.
Patterns on these maps resemble those seen on earlier maps of emphysema (7),
although care must be taken in drawing inferences about COPD component diseases.
References:
(7) Mason, T.J., Fraumeni, J.F., Jr., Hoover, R., et al.
An Atlas of Mortality from Selected Diseases. Washington: US GPO (DHHS Pub. No. (NIH)
81-2397). 1981.
(53) National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 1994. Hyattsville,
Maryland: Public Health Service. 1995.
(98) Bates, D.V., Respiratory Function in Disease. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co., 1989.
(99) Cherniack, N.S. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders
Company. 227-32.1991.
Atlas of United States Mortality by L.W. Pickle,
M. Mungiole, G.K. Jones, and A.A. White, US DHHS, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics: Hyattsville, Maryland, Dec. 1996, DHHS
Publication No. (PHS) 97-1015.
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