NPJ Primary Care Respiratory Medicine最新文献

There is increasing evidence that sex hormones may impact the development of obstructive lung disease (OLD). Therefore, we studied the effect of bilateral oophorectomy (oophorectomy) on the development of OLD. Women were identified from the Mayo Clinic Cohort Study of Oophorectomy and Aging-2. Data were collected using the Rochester Epidemiology Project records-linkage system. A total of 1653 women who underwent oophorectomy and 1653 referent women of similar age were assessed for OLD using diagnostic codes and medical record abstraction. Women who underwent oophorectomy had an overall higher risk of all OLD, all chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and chronic bronchitis but not of all asthma, confirmed asthma, or confirmed COPD. The association with all OLD was stronger in women who were age ≤45 years at oophorectomy, never smokers, non-obese, and in women with benign indications; however, the interactions were not statistically significant. There was an increased risk of all asthma in women age ≤45 years at oophorectomy who took estrogen therapy. Never smokers of all ages had a stronger association of oophorectomy with all asthma and all COPD, whereas smokers had a stronger association of oophorectomy with emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Non-obese women of all ages had a stronger association of oophorectomy with all COPD, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. The results of this study combined with the increased risk of several chronic diseases reported in previous studies suggest that oophorectomy in premenopausal women should be avoided unless there is clear evidence of a high genetic risk of ovarian cancer.

Supporting self-management is key in improving disease control, with technology increasingly utilised. We hypothesised the addition of telehealth support following assessment in an integrated respiratory clinic could reduce unscheduled healthcare visits in patients with asthma and COPD. Following treatment optimisation, exacerbation-prone participants or those with difficulty in self-management were offered telehealth support. This comprised automated twice-weekly telephone calls, with a specialist nurse triaging alerts. We performed a matched cohort study assessing additional benefits of the telehealth service, matching by: confirmed diagnosis, age, sex, FEV₁ percent predicted, smoking status and ≥1 exacerbation in the last year. Thirty-four telehealth participants were matched to twenty-nine control participants. The telehealth cohort generated 165 alerts, with 29 participants raising at least one alert; 88 (53.5%) alerts received a call discussing self-management, of which 35 (21%) received definitive advice that may otherwise have required an unscheduled healthcare visit. There was a greater reduction in median exacerbation rate across both telehealth groups at 6 months post-intervention (1 to 0, p < 0.001) but not in control groups (0.5 to 0.0, p = 0.121). Similarly, there was a significant reduction in unscheduled GP visits across the telehealth groups (1.5 to 0.0, p < 0.001), but not the control groups (0.5 to 0.0, p = 0.115). These reductions led to cost-savings across all groups, but greater in the telehealth cohorts. The addition of telehealth support to exacerbation-prone patients with asthma or COPD, following comprehensive assessment and treatment optimisation, proved beneficial in reducing exacerbation frequency and unscheduled healthcare visits and thus leads to significant cost-savings for the NHS.Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03096509.

We explored past-year quit attempts, cessation methods used, and associations with sociodemographic, smoking, and health-related characteristics among smoking patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Germany. Cross-sectional survey data of 509 past-year smokers (current smokers and ≤12 months abstinent) with COPD (ICD-10 code J44.x and FEV1/FVC <0.70) from 19 pulmonary primary care practices were used. Associations were explored between age, sex, educational qualification, lung function, urges to smoke, psychological distress, and (a) ≥1 past-year quit attempt (yes/no), (b) use of ≥1 evidence-based smoking cessation method (yes/no). Of all patients, 48.5% (n = 247, 95% confidence interval (CI) 44.2-52.9) reported ≥1 past-year quit attempt. Such an attempt was positively associated with the male sex (Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.50, 95% CI 1.01-2.24) and negatively associated with time spent with urges to smoke (OR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.52-0.91). During the most recent past-year quit attempt, one-third of the patients used ≥1 evidence-based smoking cessation method (31.2%, 95% CI 25.4-37.0), which was positively associated with the strength of urges to smoke (OR = 1.62, 95% CI 1.09-2.41). Combined behavioural and pharmacological treatments were used by 4.0% (n = 10, 95% CI 1.6-6.5). Electronic cigarettes were used most frequently (21.5%, 95% CI 16.3-26.6). Although a high proportion of COPD patients in German pulmonary primary care attempt to quit smoking, only a few of them use evidence-based methods as assistance for quitting.

Two recruitment strategies for research were compared to prospectively identify patients with breathlessness who are awaiting a diagnosis in primary care. The first method utilised searches of the electronic patient record (EPR), the second method involved an electronic template triggered during a consultation. Using an electronic template triggered at the point of consultation increased recruitment to prospective research approximately nine-fold compared with searching for symptom codes and study mailouts.

Healthcare-seeking with lung cancer symptoms is a prerequisite for improving timely diagnosis of lung cancer. In this study we aimed to explore barriers towards contacting the general practitioner (GP) with lung cancer symptoms, and to analyse the impact of social inequality. The study is based on a nationwide survey with 69,060 individuals aged ≥40 years, randomly selected from the Danish population. The survey included information on lung cancer symptoms, GP contacts, barriers to healthcare-seeking and smoking status. Information about socioeconomics was obtained by linkage to Danish Registers. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression model were used to analyse the data. "Being too busy" and "Being worried about wasting the doctor's time" were the most frequent barriers to healthcare-seeking with lung cancer symptoms. Individuals out of workforce and individuals who smoked more often reported "Being worried about what the doctor might find" and "Being too embarrassed" about the symptoms. The social inequality in barriers to healthcare-seeking with lung cancer symptoms is noticeable, which emphasises the necessity of focus on vulnerable groups at risk of postponing relevant healthcare-seeking.

Allergic rhinitis and asthma are common diseases that frequently coexist, referred to as unified airway disease. There is currently no validated scale in Spanish, which allows simultaneous evaluation of both conditions. A translation from Portuguese to Spanish was therefore performed. It was administered to 120 patients aged between 18 and 70 years whose native language was Spanish and presented a diagnosis of allergic rhinitis and asthma. The reliability, validity and sensitivity to instrument change validations were carried out, as well as the values of minimally relevant clinical differences. Reliability was evaluated using Cronbach´s alpha test on CARAT-global: 0.83 [IC 95% 0.79-0.88]; test and retest evaluation was done with Pearson´s correlation coefficient: 0.6 [IC 95% 0.32-0.77] and the standard error of measurement 3.5 (p < 0.005). A confirmatory factor analysis was performed corroborating two factors. Correlation coefficients were not high in the longitudinal validation. Concurrent validity showed an acceptable correlation between CARAT10 asthma ACQ5 and low between allergic rhinitis-VAS. There was a milestone of the controlled disease in the discriminant validity of CARAT10 rhinitis ≥ 8 mean an adequate control, CARAT10-asthma > 16 In this case, CARAT10-asthma value < 16 are interpreted as an inadequate or partial control and values ≥ 16 mean an adequate control and CARAT10-global ≥ 18, patients evaluated with CARAT10 with a result ≥ 18, which would be a patient with both conditions controlled. The minimally relevant clinically important average difference found in the CARAT10 scale was 3.25 (SD 3.77). The CARAT10 scale in Spanish is a standardised, reliable and valid evaluation method on patients with unified airway disease.

Currently the National Asthma and COPD audit programme (NACAP) only undertakes audit of COPD primary care in Wales due to its near complete data coverage. We aimed to determine if the quality of COPD primary care in the other UK nations is comparable with Wales. We found that English, Scottish, and Northern Irish practices were significantly worse than Welsh practices at recording coded lung function parameters used in COPD diagnosis (ORs: 0.51 [0.43-0.59], 0.29 [0.23-0.36], 0.42 [0.31-0.58], respectively) and referring appropriate patients for pulmonary rehabilitation (ORs: 0.10 [0.09-0.11], 0.12 [0.11-0.14], 0.22 [0.19-0.25], respectively). Completing national audits of primary care in Wales only may have led to improvements in care, or at least improvements in the recording of care in Wales that are not occurring elsewhere in the UK. This highlights the potential importance of audit in improving care quality and accurate recording of that care.

Given the increasing use of e-cigarettes and uncertainty surrounding their safety, we conducted a systematic review to determine the effects of e-cigarettes on measures of lung function. We systematically searched EMBASE, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO databases via Ovid, the Cochrane CENTRAL database, and the Web of Science Core from 2004 until July 2021, identifying 8856 potentially eligible studies. A total of eight studies (seven studying immediate effects and one long-term effects, 273 total participants) were included. The risk of bias was assessed using the Risk of Bias in Non-randomized Studies-of Interventions (ROBINS-I) and Cochrane risk of bias tools. These studies suggest that vaping increases airway resistance but does not appear to impact forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV₁₎, forced vital capacity (FVC), or FEV₁/FVC ratio. However, given the limited size and follow-up duration of these studies, larger, long-term studies are required to further determine the effects of e-cigarettes on lung function.

Adherence to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in asthma is suboptimal. Patients may rely more on their short-acting beta-agonist (SABA) to control symptoms, which may increase their risk of exacerbations and uncontrolled asthma. Our objective is to describe ICS adherence and SABA use among Dutch primary care patients with asthma, and how these are related to exacerbations and self-reported asthma control. Patients aged ≥12 years diagnosed with asthma who received ≥2 inhalation medication prescriptions in 2016 were selected from the Nivel Primary Care Database. ICS adherence (continuous measure of medication availability), SABA use (number of prescriptions), exacerbations (short courses of oral corticosteroids with daily dose ≥20 mg), and asthma control (self-reported with the Asthma Control Questionnaire; ACQ) were computed. Multilevel logistic regression analyses, to account for clustering of patients within practices, were used to model associations between ICS adherence, SABA use, and asthma outcomes. Prescription data of 13,756 patients were included. ICS adherence averaged 62% (SD: 32.7), 14% of patients received ≥3 SABA prescriptions, and 13% of patients experienced ≥1 exacerbation. Self-reported asthma control was available for 2183 patients of whom 51% reported controlled asthma (ACQ-5 score <0.75). A higher number of SABA prescriptions was associated with a higher risk of exacerbations and uncontrolled asthma, even with high ICS adherence (>90%). ICS adherence was not associated with exacerbations, whilst poor ICS adherence (≤50%) was associated with uncontrolled asthma. In conclusion, increased SABA use is an important and easily identifiable signal for general practitioners to discuss asthma self-management behavior with their patients.

Smoking among asthmatics is common and associates with poorer asthma control, more rapid lung function decline and higher health care costs in dose-dependent manner. No previous real-life studies exist, however, on how smoking status and pack-years are documented in scheduled asthma contacts in primary health care (PHC) during long-term follow-up, and how often patients are advised to quit smoking. In this real-life 12-year follow-up study, we showed that out of all scheduled PHC asthma contacts (n = 603) smoking was mentioned only in 17.2% and pack-years only in 6.5%. Smoking data was not recorded even once in 70.9% of never smokers, 64.7% of ex-smokers and 27.3% of current smokers. Smoking including pack-years were mentioned more often if nurse took part on the scheduled contact. For current smokers, smoking cessation was recommended only in 21.7% of their scheduled contacts. Current smokers used more antibiotics and had more unscheduled health care contacts during follow-up.