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As many as 8.3 percent of Romania's population aged over 40 suffer from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), found a survey conducted this year by the Romanian Society of Pneumology (SRP) and presented at a press conference on Thursday.
The estimated prevalence is slightly up from 2012 (8.13 percent at that time), when the previous SRP survey was carried out.
82 percent of the Romanians included in the survey have respiratory issues and 71 percent underwent spirometry at least once, the medical survey shows.
Also, three out of 20 respondents who are taking treatment for respiratory issues resort to self-medication.
Only two out of five patients with respiratory problems regularly see the doctor.
"8.3 percent of the Romanians over 40 years of age suffer from COPD, a disease that affects increasingly more people every year and which claims more than 3 million lives every year. A survey revealed that 89 percent of the population haven't heard of this disease, and 85 percent of smokers haven't heard of COPD either, although smoking is the main risk factor for the disease. This is extremely worrying - in order to be able to fight such a serious illness you should first know about it. COPD has no specific symptoms, and for this reason the patients often get diagnosed fairly late, especially as the symptoms are often attributed to smoking or aging. It is essential that people who meet the risk profile promptly see the doctor if they notice signs that may indicate COPD," said the president of the Romanian Society of Pneumology, Ruxandra Ulmeanu.
The survey conducted on a sample of 8,000 people from both urban and rural areas included two components: screening, by applying an individual questionnaire, and spirometric testing (on persons selected after filling out the questionnaire).
