Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has been associated with exposure in the workplace. We aimed to assess the association of respiratory symptoms and lung function with occupation in the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease study. Methods: We analysed cross-sectional data from 28 823 adults (≥40 years) in 34 countries. We considered 11 occupations and grouped them by likelihood of exposure to organ...
Background: Small airway obstruction is a common feature of obstructive lung diseases. Research is scarce on small airway obstruction, its global prevalence, and risk factors. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of small airway obstruction, examine the associated risk factors, and compare the findings for two different spirometry parameters. Methods: The Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease study is a multination...
Smoking is the most well-established cause of chronic airflow obstruction (CAO) but particulate air pollution and poverty have also been implicated. We regressed the sex-specific prevalence of CAO from 41 Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease study sites against smoking prevalence from the same study, the gross national income per capita, and the local annual mean level of ambient particulate matter (PM2.5) using ...