Do thunderstorms worsen asthma and COPD symptoms?

Anyone familiar with hay fever understands that weather impacts respiratory symptoms. However, many of weather’s effects on respiratory function remain unclear. One unanswered question is the extent to which storms affect people with chronic lung disease, particularly the type affecting the way air moves in and out of the lungs. These “obstructive lung diseases” are characterized by problems with airway narrowing. The most common obstructive lung diseases are asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The two main types of COPD are chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Obstructive lung diseases affect approximately 10% of the US population, and account for an outsized portion of hospitalizations and deaths. Indeed, COPD is the fourth most common cause of death among US adults. Study examined relationship between thunderstorms and COPD, asthma symptoms In a recent article published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers analyzed Medicare claims from 1999 to 2012 to study whether storms led to an increase in respiratory illness-related emergency room visits in patients with obstructive lung disease. The study included 46,581,214 patients over 65 years old who had 22,118,934 emergency room visits due to respiratory complaints. Obstructive lung disease was a diagnosis in 43.6% of the patients, and included asthma (10.5%), COPD (26.5%), and combined asthma and COPD (6.6%). The researchers used meteorological data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adm...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Asthma Lung disease Source Type: blogs