Supporting patients with COPD to self-care.
By 2030, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is projected to be the third leading cause of death worldwide (World Health Organization [WHO], 2016). Within the UK, it is estimated that around three million people are living with COPD in England alone, with two million of these unaware that they are living with the condition (Department of Health [DH], 2012).
It is the fifth biggest killer in the UK overall, causing about 30,000 deaths each year (DH, 2011). The condition itself is associated with considerable disability, impaired quality of life and high utilisation of healthcare resources.
Ground breaking nurse-led lung cancer project.
A recent independent evaluation of Liverpool’s Healthy Lung programme, undertaken by Queen Mary University of London and the University of Liverpool, found that this nurse-led programme is improving early detection of lung cancer and undiagnosed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Liverpool’s healthy lung programme was launched in April 2016 by NHS Liverpool clinical commissioning group (CCG), working in partnership with local hospitals, NHS England, Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support as part of the national ACE programme, with the aim of finding and treating as many cases of lung cancer and COPD as possible, and as early as possible.
Raising awareness to reduce the burden of COPD.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the major causes of death in the UK and worldwide. Although public awareness has increased over the last 20 years, many people have still not heard of it or know about the symptoms and disability it causes. World COPD day was established by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) to raise awareness of the condition.
Identifying and managing malnutrition in patients with COPD is vital.
Matthew Hodson and Samantha Blamires explore how nutritional screening and appropriate management of malnutrition can improve outcomes for patients with COPD.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an umbrella term for a number of lung diseases, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis. There are an estimated three million people living with the condition in the UK, however only 900,000 are currently diagnosed (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], 2010). COPD is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, accounting for more than 28,000 deaths, 130,000 emergency admissions and 1.4 million GP consultations every year (NICE, 2010). Weight loss and being underweight are associated with poor prognosis and increased mortality, independent of disease severity (Ezzell et al, 2000), yet malnutrition is largely underrecognised and undertreated.
This piece was sponsored by an educational grant from Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition.
Spirometry is very easy to do, and very easy to get wrong (Martin, 2010; personal communication). Not only is quality
assured spirometry dependent on the effort exerted by the patient, and the technical ability of the spirometer operator,
but also on the understanding of the results by the person interpreting them.
Interpretation of the results is essential if any meaningful decision is to be made about the patient’s care.
Long-term conditions: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The use of spirometry as an objective measurement in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is widely acknowledged and discussed in guidelines about COPD, as well as those specific to spirometry (British Thoracic Society [BTS]/Association for Respiratory Technology and Physiology [ARTP], 1994; Levy et al, 2009; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], 2010; Primary Care Commissioning [PCC], 2013). As a relatively simple test to undertake, it has been performed in primary care for several years now but with varying degrees of expertise and understanding (Strong et al, 2014). The standard of secondary care lung function testing (LFT) has never been questioned. Overall, this inequity of testing has resulted in an estimated 50% of people having an incorrect diagnosis (Tinkelman et al, 2006). This results in people taking medication they do not need, or not receiving treatment they do. This article will enable the reader to identify gaps in their own knowledge about the use of spirometry in COPD diagnosis.
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