India and obstructive lung disease: More than 14% of Indians aged 45 and above could be living with obstructive lung disease (OLD), according to an analysis of the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI) published in PLOS One.
The assessment, by an international team including researchers from Mumbaiās International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), the University of Southern California and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, used spirometry on over 31,000 adults to estimate prevalence.
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The study reports an overall obstructive lung disease prevalence of 14.4%, with men more affected than women, and rates rising with age. OLD, of which chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major type, results from lung damage and inflammation that obstructs airflow.
Awareness was strikingly low: only 12% of men and 11% of women who met criteria for obstructive lung disease reported a prior diagnosis. Authors called for nationwide awareness campaigns and data-driven approaches to address the rising burden, noting that high-quality, population-based estimates have been limited despite the diseaseās scale.
Risk factors varied by region. Smoking prevalence ranged from ~30% in North India to ~14% in Western India, while use of unclean cooking fuel was lowest in the South (~30%) and highest in the Northeast (>65%).
LASI is a nationally representative survey covering 73,000 adults in India, including 32,000 aged 60+, and is harmonised with the U.S. Health and Retirement Study and sister studies in 45 countries, enabling cross-country comparisons. Researchers said a second wave of data collection is underway.
(Source: PLOS One)
