TY - JOUR AU - Sandelowsky, Hanna AU - Ställberg, Björn AU - Nager, Anna AU - Hasselström, Jan PY - 2011 DA - 2011/11/03 TI - The prevalence of undiagnosed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a primary care population with respiratory tract infections - a case finding study JO - BMC Family Practice SP - 122 VL - 12 IS - 1 AB - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an underdiagnosed cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Prevalence of COPD has been shown to be highly associated with positive smoking history and increasing age. Spirometry is the method used for diagnosing COPD. However, identifying patients at risk of COPD to undergo spirometry tests has been challenging. Therefore, there is a need for new cost-effective and feasible diagnostic screening procedures for use in primary care centers. Our aim was to describe the prevalence and severity of undiagnosed COPD in a group of patients with respiratory infections attending urgent primary care, and to identify those variables in patients' history that could be used to detect the disease. SN - 1471-2296 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-12-122 DO - 10.1186/1471-2296-12-122 ID - Sandelowsky2011 ER -