A new research has indicated that active smoking isn’t the only major reason for Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and that passive smoking could also lead to decline in lung function, which is a prerequisite for COPD.
Studies have long focused on reducing accelerated decline of lung function, because it has long been assumed that all people suffering COPD experience such a decline. However, a ground-breaking research from the University of Copenhagen has suggested that accelerated decline of lung function is not a prerequisite for COP.
Researchers have shown in this study that this is the case for only approximately 50 per cent of patients with COPD, whereas the remaining 50 per cent develop the disease with close to normal lung function decline.
According to Peter Lange, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at Hvidovre Hospital and professor at the Department of Public Health at the University long-term chronic disease can be developed in different ways, so achieving normal growth in lung function in early adulthood is an important factor in terms of future risk.
For decades, the development of COPD has been ascribed to accelerated decline of lung function from a normal level achieved in young adulthood. However, this study indicates that not all at risk patients show accelerated lung function decline, which may explain why, so far, the effect of various treatments of lung function decline has been difficult to establish.
For the first time, the scientists could quantitate two major trajectories of lung function leading to COPD: the fast decline trajectory, where lung function declines very rapidly from a normal level, and the alternative trajectory where suboptimal development of lung function during childhood and adolescence is the major determinant of COPD in older age.
The study comprised data from three large cohorts, where individuals were subjected to repeated lung function measurements over the course of many years. In two of the cohorts, the longest follow-up period was approx. 25 years.
The potential longer-term benefits of this study will include a better understanding of the development of COPD, which could play an important part in the prevention of new cases. The present study shows that the maximally achieved level of lung function in childhood and early adulthood is an important determinant of future COPD risk.
“Thus, every effort should be undertaken to achieve normal growth of lung function including non-smoking during teenage years, treatment of asthma in childhood and reducing exposure to agents such as passive smoking,” Professor Peter Lange concludes.
The findings have just been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Will someone please tell the anti-smoking industry that they’ve won, they can now stop the B. S.