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

Abstract

Abstract Background In 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. Methods We 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. Results There was a significant increase in the whole study group from 8.0% to 38.9% in the use of spirometry (p Conclusions We 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.

Keywords

• COPD
• diagnosis
• primary healthcare
• respiratory symptoms
• spirometry
• smoking