Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): international data

COPD is a relatively new term describing a disease with varied diagnostic criteria, the prevalence of which is heavily influenced by a population's age distribution and smoking habits. COPD often presents late in life and inclusion and classification in mortality records is known to be inconsistent. These issues combined with differences in epidemiological study design make international comparisons of COPD morbidity and mortality very difficult. The following data should therefore be interpreted with caution.

Chart 1 and Chart 2 present mortality rates by gender for COPD from the World Health Organization (WHO) Morbidity Database (2015 update, extracted October 2016). The 2013 data from Scotland included in chart 1 ranks Scottish men third highest (approx. 54 per 100,000) for COPD mortality. Chart 2 shows that Scottish women ranked second highest (approx. 56 per 100,000) for COPD mortality compared with other industrialised countries in this sample.

Burden of disease studies

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is responsible for the Global Burden of Disease study, which produces international comparisons of the burden of disease. These estimates are expressed as Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) lost due to a particular cause. DALYs combine years of life lost together with years of life lived with disability and present an overall picture of the impact of a condition. The GBD has published a profile for Scotland which shows comparisons with similar countries and estimates that COPD was the 2nd largest contributor to combined mortality and morbidity in Scotland in 2017. This estimate contrasts with that of the Scottish Burden of Disease study, which estimated that COPD was the ninth most common cause of overall burden in Scotland in 2016. The Scottish Burden of Disease study has produced a briefing paper on COPD estimates for Scotland.

Other data sources

Figure 1 below shows the hospital admission rate for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as age-standardised rates per 100,000. Data were obtained from the COPD chapter of the World Health Organization Hospital Morbidity Database, October 2011 update, and Eurostat, March 2012 update (published in European Respiratory Society's White Book, 2013). The following countries reported both COPD and bronchiectasis: Germany, France, Hungary, Ireland, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and Turkey. The UK has a rate of 155.6 per 100,000 population, according to the data shown.