Last update:
09-Mar-2024

OBJECTIVE Τo search for common etiological factors that contribute to the qualitative and or quantitative composition of the morbidity from the external and or internal environment of patients (i.e. the diseases that accompany it) of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

METHOD This study included 7,892 subjects (49% male), aged ≥39 years, who completed the electronically circulated Athens Breath Center questionnaire (ABC-Q) (http://goo.gl/ XEm4L2) regarding the comorbidity rate and relative risk of the most common COPD comorbidities.

RESULTS We found that COPD is a varying severity risk of specific (extra)pulmonary diseases, 0.61±0.11/2.56±1.14 (men/women, M/W), but also, on the contrary, extrapulmonary diseases can result in the establishment of COPD (risk ratio; 1.96±0.99/3.08±1.07, M/W).

CONCLUSIONS The comorbidities of COPD are not random collections of health deviations, but consequences of common pathogenic pathways, starting from disturbances of the external and or internal environment, pharmacological interactions or pleiotropic action of genes, as shown by the significantly different distribution them by gender. Therefore, the relationship COPD/comorbidities is, from an etiological point of view, bidirectional. Our findings, therefore, show the need to apply combination therapy rather than the practice of parallel treatments, where one ignores the other.

Key words: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Diseaseome, Multi(com)morbidities, Phenotypes, Questionnaire.