MedWire News: Most patients with, or at risk for, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have little knowledge of the condition, and many have never heard of it, US researchers report.

Donna Parker and colleagues from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, explain in the journal Lung that, despite the introduction of awareness campaigns, "COPD remains under-identified, under-diagnosed, and under-treated."

The researchers assessed knowledge and attitudes about COPD in a focus group of 13 primary care patients (average age 58 years), eight of whom had been diagnosed with COPD and nine of whom were current smokers.

The team found that most of the participants believed lung cancer to be the main and most significant disease associated with smoking, and many of the patients had difficulty connecting anything other than lung cancer with the term "lung disease."

In addition, most of the participants said that they had never previously heard of COPD.

All of the patients expressed a desire for more information about COPD and most of the smokers in the group wanted more information to help them quit the habit.

The smokers in the group also said that being told by their doctors that their "lung age" is greater than their real age would help them to quit smoking and make other lifestyle changes to reduce their risk of lung disease.

"We were surprised at how pervasively patients lacked basic information about COPD other than the fact that they had a condition affecting their lungs that they could not name. Similarly, there was a lack of familiarity with the tests that were conducted to assess lung disease," Parker and team write.

"Overall, these primary care patients expressed a desire to obtain additional information regarding their lung condition, and smokers wanted information to help motivate them to quit."

The team concludes: "Providing patients with their lung age at the point of diagnosis may be an optimum time to promote behavioural change and will require further investigation."

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