China News Service, Beijing, March 8. Recently, Sun Tieying, director of the Department of Internal Medicine of Beijing Hospital, said in an interview with the media that my country’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (hereinafter referred to as "COPD") has a heavy burden, and the society still needs to improve its response to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Awareness of the lungs.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: high incidence, great harm, low cognition
In 2019, survey data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Academician Wang Chen of the Chinese Academy of Engineering showed that the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among adults over 40 years old in my country was 13.7%, and the prevalence rate of people over 60 years old even exceeded 27%.
Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said in an interview with the media that a survey in the United States in the 1990s showed that the mortality rate of cardiovascular stroke, coronary heart disease, hypertension and other aspects have all decreased, and the only increase is Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Therefore, the United States attaches great importance to the research, investment, and drug research and development of COPD.
High incidence, great harm, and low awareness, this is Sun Tieying's summary of the overall incidence and understanding of COPD in China.
She said that COPD has actually ranked second among all the disease burdens in my country, with about 100 million patients and the first death toll in the world. The annual death toll is second only to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and cancer.
However, as opposed to high incidence and great harm, the society's awareness of COPD is relatively low.
Zhong Nanshan once told the media that many people "feel that it is a natural phenomenon to have difficulty breathing when they are older," and lack the understanding of the severity of COPD.
In fact, COPD is a chronic disease with high mortality and a large burden of disease.
The early symptoms of COPD are mild, with only mild cough and sputum, which are easily overlooked, but in fact, the patient’s airway has begun to suffer from inflammation at this time.
If the airway is inflamed for too long, it will become narrow, causing the patient to start to inhale and exhale easily.
At this stage, the disease is already in an irreversible stage, and long-term drug treatment is needed to relieve symptoms.
In addition, the urban-rural differences of COPD are also very obvious. Although the incidence rate in rural areas is high, the rate of drug treatment and standardized treatment is generally lower than that in urban areas.
Compared with tertiary first-class hospitals, the level of diagnosis and treatment in basic-level hospitals still needs to be improved. Only 20% of basic-level medical workers fully understand the treatment principles of COPD.
Sun Tieying said that these factors directly or indirectly affect the diagnosis rate and treatment rate of COPD.
Only about 10% of patients in my country are correctly diagnosed, and most of the patients have severe or even severe COPD when they are first diagnosed. The disease hazards, the difficulty of diagnosis and treatment, and the economic burden have greatly increased.
As a chronic disease on the same level as diabetes, hypertension and other diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requires extensive attention from the society.
COPD: How do individuals prevent and treat?
There are many risk factors for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In addition to heredity, poor lung growth in childhood, and repeated infections, exposure to harmful gases is also a major risk factor.
Sources of harmful gases include smoking or second-hand smoke exposure, burning of biofuels (firewood, animal dung, etc.), dust, and air pollution.
Taking the initiative to quit smoking and staying away from smokers is one of the means to prevent COPD.
In addition, lung function screening should be performed in time when symptoms such as chronic cough and sputum are present.
For patients who have been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, in addition to avoiding risk factors in life, it is also critical to adhere to the medication prescribed by the doctor.
According to the "Chinese Residents' Self-Management Manual for Chronic Respiratory Disease Prevention and Intervention for COPD Patients" issued by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in addition to quitting smoking as soon as possible and taking medications on time, COPD patients should also go to the hospital for follow-up visits and regular lung function tests. And under the guidance of professionals to carry out respiratory function rehabilitation training.
The "next step" of COPD: strengthening management measures and the role of grassroots units
How to solve the problem of COPD eroding people's health?
Sun Tieying believes that the treatment of common diseases like COPD should strengthen management, strengthen follow-up, and strengthen treatment follow-up.
The diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases is very different from the diagnosis and treatment of ordinary diseases, and its management must be standardized and promoted nationwide.
On the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen the "gatekeeping" role of grassroots medical work.
Improving the level of grassroots management will be an important part of solving the difficult problems in the treatment of chronic diseases such as COPD.
Sun Tieying called for strengthening the training of grassroots doctors on disease diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up, so that grassroots doctors can rely on it, increase the penetration rate of primary lung function tests, and strengthen grassroots COPD prevention and treatment.
At present, the prevention and treatment of chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has attracted national attention.
The prevention and treatment of chronic respiratory diseases with COPD as the focus has been incorporated into the national strategy, including Baiyin City in Gansu Province, Yulin City and Qingjian County in Shaanxi Province, Zhumadian City in Henan Province, and Heping District in Tianjin City. Integrating COPD health management with basic public health services, hierarchical diagnosis and treatment, family doctors, etc., and launching COPD health management pilot projects.
In terms of diagnosis and treatment, COPD is included in the national hierarchical diagnosis and treatment pilot disease list.
"Now our medical insurance also attaches great importance to the treatment of chronic diseases. For our doctors and ordinary people, it is a great good thing to have a treatment weapon." Sun Tieying said, "These gratifying progress are all for doing well. The grass-roots work of COPD has laid a good foundation." (End)