• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.71 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2011

Many findings suggest that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) imposes an enormous burden on patients, health-care professionals and society. COPD contributes to morbidity and mortality and to a significant use of health-care resources. In spite of a higher prevalence of COPD in Korea, the result of COPD treatment is not effective. The purpose of this article was to review recent advances in the study of COPD in Korea with the aim of improving effective management. This review highlights articles pertaining to the following topics; prevalence, assessment of COPD, risk factors for hospitalization, co-morbid diseases, phenotypes, and treatment issues.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.85 no.3
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• pp.205-220
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• 2022

This study aimed to describe the prevalence of comorbidities associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and their relation with relevant outcomes. A systematic review based on the PRISMA methodology was performed from January 2020 until July 2021. The MEDLINE, Lilacs, and Scielo databases were searched to identify studies related to COPD and its comorbidities. Observational studies on the prevalence of comorbidities in COPD patients and costs with health estimates, reduced quality of life, and mortality were included. Studies that were restricted to one or more COPD pain assessments and only specific comorbidities such as osteoporosis, bronchitis, and asthma were excluded. The initial search identified 1,409 studies and after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 20 studies were finally selected for analysis (comprising data from 447,459 COPD subjects). The most frequent COPD comorbidities were: hypertension (range, 17%-64.7%), coronary artery disease (19.9%-47.8%), diabetes (10.2%-45%), osteoarthritis (18%-43.8%), psychiatric conditions (12.1%-33%), and asthma (14.7%-32.5%). Several comorbidities had an impact on the frequency and severity of COPD exacerbations, quality of life, and mortality risk, in particular malignancies, coronary artery disease, chronic heart failure, and cardiac arrhythmias. Comorbidities, especially cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, are frequent in COPD patients, and some of them are associated with higher mortality.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.522-534
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• 2022

Purpose: This study examined the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Self-Care in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Inventory (SC-COPDI) and the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Self-Care Self-Efficacy Scale (SCES-COPD). The SC-COPDI consists of the Self-Care Maintenance Scale (SCMES), Self-Care Monitoring Scale (SCMOS), and Self-Care Management Scale (SCMAS). Methods: The original tool was translated using a back-translation process. Participants were 241 patients with COPD at the Chonnam National University Hospital in Korea. The construct validity was verified through confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability was verified using Cronbach's α. Results: The SCMES consisted of 10 items of three factors-one of four factors was deleted from the original tool. In the SCMOS, there were six items of two factors after two items were deleted from the original tool. The SCMAS consisted of the original 10 items of three factors. The SCES-COPD consisted of six items of two factors, with one item removed from the original tool. The model fit indices of all tools were good, and the construct validity was confirmed. Cronbach's α of SCMES was .72, SCMOS was .90, SCMAS was .81, and SCES-COPD was .85. Conclusion: The Korean version of SC-COPDI and SCES-COPD are valid and reliable instruments for measuring self-care in people with COPD. These instruments can be used in self-care studies of COPD patients in Korea.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.76 no.2
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• pp.53-58
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• 2014

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common airway disease that has considerable impact on disease burdens and mortality rates. A large number of articles on COPD are published within the last few years. Many aspects on COPD ranging from risk factors to management have continued to be fertile fields of investigation. This review summarizes 6 clinical articles with regards to the risk factors, phenotype, assessment, exacerbation, management and prognosis of patients with COPD which were being published last year in major medical journals.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.80 no.3
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• pp.226-229
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• 2017

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) had been considered the only major disease that is continuing to increase in prevalence. There were a few studies about the change of the prevalence of COPD, which showed the prevalence of COPD did not increase. In this review, we report on the trends in the prevalence of COPD in Korea using the data from Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). The prevalence of COPD in 2015 was 13.4% (male, 21.6%; female, 5.8%). The prevalence of COPD did not change much, which ranged from 13.1% to 14.6% during the period from 2010 to 2015. Among the subjects found to have COPD by spirometry, only 2.8% had been diagnosed as COPD by physicians during the period from 2011 and 2015. In conclusion, the prevalence of COPD did not change significantly during the period from 2010 to 2015. And most COPD patients still had not been diagnosed by physicians and consequently had not been treated appropriately.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.71 no.6
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• pp.400-407
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• 2011

Background: There were a few studies which were conducted to know about the behavior of the chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) patients. The aims of this study was to explore the behaviour of COPD patients, such as awareness and impact of disease, the pathway of visiting doctors, and the treatment pattern and preference. Methods: A face-to-face interview of 300 subjects with COPD was conducted. Results: The most concerned symptom which made the respondents to visit the hospital was 'breathlessness' (78%). Only 58% of them knew the exact diagnosis. Seventy-three percent of them visited the hospital 'once a month' or 'once every 2 month'. They have made 12.8 prescheduled visits to the hospital in the past 1 year. Unscheduled visits and hospital stay figured to two in the past year. Only 11% of respondents felt they were currently in good health. 'Severe' and 'very severe' COPD patients perceived their health to be in a worse condition than 'mild' and 'moderate' COPD patients. When conditions worsened, 42% of patients were hospitalized. The most common prescription treatment was a fixed combination of inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting ${\beta}2$ agonists (48%), followed by a long acting anticholinergics (38%). Conclusion: Over forty percent of the patients didn't know exactly about their condition. Most of them had a negative attitude toward their current health status. Doctors need to know more about COPD patients in terms of their attitude toward the disease, impact of the disease, interaction with healthcare professionals and treatment related problems.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.743-752
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• 2003

Purpose: This study was conducted to combine the effects of pulmonary rehabilitation program (PRP) on exercise capacity/tolerance and general health status of COPD patients based on the primary research results examined the effects of PRP, Method: Seventeen studies were selected by the sampling criteria established to include the studies that reported enough statistics necessary to conduct meta-analysis. Result: According to the study results, the most effective indicators for exercise capacity/tolerance were exercise time (such as cycling time or treadmill walking time) and ground walking distance within given time (6 minutes or 12 minutes), whereas effects on such indicators as VE and VO$_2$ were not statistically significant. PRP induced significant effect on patients' general health status, frequently measured by physical, psycho-emotional, and holistic indicators, the enhancement on psycho-emotional dimension resulted from PRP was more prominent than those of the other dimensions. From the results, it was noted that the place where PRP was given and the contents of PRP exercised their influence on the outcome variables. Which body part was trained was also one of the important factors that influence on the patients' perception of dyspnea during exercise as well as on exercise capacity/tolerance. Conclusion: PRP including exercise training significantly improved the exercise capacity and general health status of COPD patients.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.813-821
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine descriptors of dyspnea and clinical characteristics in patients with COPD at ED visit. Method: The study design was a descriptive survey, and 46 patients with COPD complaining of dyspnea were participated during their visits to the ED of C university hospital in G city, from October 1, 2004 to April 8, 2005. Result: The qualitative characteristics of dyspnea at the time of decision to the ED visit were short of breath (71.7%), tight (32.6%), hard to breathe (15.2%), smothering or suffocating (10.9%), gasping (8.7%), couldn't breathe (6.5%), constricted (2.2%), and hunger for air (2.2%). In the item of dyspnea checklists, My chest felt tight was the most common description among subjects. As the result of factor analysis of dyspnea checklists, the first factor was characterized rapid and shallow, the second was suffocating/smothering, the third was hunger for air, and the fourth was constricted. Conclusion: This study suggests that a checklist of dyspnea descriptors based on this findings would be utilized as a tool of initial and ongoing assessment for dyspneic patients with COPD in the ED after identifying the validity and reliability of the checklist.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.85 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2022

Background: Although respiratory tract infection is one of the most important factors triggering acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AE-COPD), limited data are available to suggest an epidemiologic pattern of microbiology in South Korea. Methods: A multicenter observational study was conducted between January 2015 and December 2018 across 28 hospitals in South Korea. Adult patients with moderate-to-severe acute exacerbations of COPD were eligible to participate in the present study. The participants underwent all conventional tests to identify etiology of microbial pathogenesis. The primary outcome was the percentage of different microbiological pathogens causing AE-COPD. A comparative microbiological analysis of the patients with overlapping asthma-COPD (ACO) and pure COPD was performed. Results: We included 1,186 patients with AE-COPD. Patients with pure COPD constituted 87.9% and those with ACO accounted for 12.1%. Nearly half of the patients used an inhaled corticosteroid-containing regimen and one-fifth used systemic corticosteroids. Respiratory pathogens were found in 55.3% of all such patients. Bacteria and viruses were detected in 33% and 33.2%, respectively. Bacterial and viral coinfections were found in 10.9%. The most frequently detected bacteria were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9.8%), and the most frequently detected virus was influenza A (10.4%). Multiple bacterial infections were more likely to appear in ACO than in pure COPD (8.3% vs. 3.6%, p=0.016). Conclusion: Distinct microbiological patterns were identified in patients with moderate-to-severe AE-COPD in South Korea. These findings may improve evidence-based management of patients with AE-COPD and represent the basis for further studies investigating infectious pathogens in patients with COPD.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.84 no.1
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• pp.35-45
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• 2021

Globally, cardiovascular diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are the leading causes of the non-communicable disease burden. Overlapping symptoms such as breathing difficulty and fatigue, with a lack of awareness about COPD among physicians, are key reasons for under-diagnosis and resulting sub-optimal care relative to COPD. Much has been published in the past on the pathogenesis and implications of cardiovascular comorbidities in COPD. However, a comprehensive review of the prevalence and impact of COPD management in commonly encountered cardiac diseases is lacking. The purpose of this study was to summarize the current knowledge regarding the prevalence of COPD in heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and atrial fibrillation. We also discuss the real-life clinical presentation and practical implications of managing COPD in cardiac diseases. We searched PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and Google Scholar for studies published 1981-May 2020 reporting the prevalence of COPD in the three specified cardiac diseases. COPD has high prevalence in heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and ischemic heart disease. Despite this, COPD remains under-diagnosed and under-managed in the majority of patients with cardiac diseases. The clinical implications of the diagnosis of COPD in cardiac disease includes the recognition of hyperinflation (a treatable trait), implementation of acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) prevention strategies, and reducing the risk of overuse of diuretics. The pharmacological agents for the management of COPD have shown a beneficial effect on cardiac functions and mortality. The appropriate management of COPD improves the cardiovascular outcomes by reducing hyperinflation and preventing AECOPD, thus reducing the risk of mortality, improving exercise tolerance, and quality of life.