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A 10-Year History of Anti-Smoking Campaigns and Enlightenment Activities for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease for Citizens at the Plaza in Ebina City

Yozo Sato^1,2, Namiko Taniuchi^1,2, Shota Kaburaki^1,2, Naohiro Aruga¹, Kaoru Kubota², Masahiro Seike², Yoshimitsu Yamano^1,2 and Akihiko Gemma²

¹Department of Respiratory Medicine, Ebina General Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan
²Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan

Background: The prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is 8.6% in Japan and 10% worldwide. Unfortunately, many patients with COPD are not correctly identified and appropriately educated regarding the condition. In this paper, we demonstrate that some citizens of Ebina City with symptoms suspicious for COPD, such as cough, sputum production, and shortness of breath, have undiagnosed COPD. We describe our activities to raise awareness of COPD through a 10-year campaign.
Methods: From 2006 to 2015, we developed activities to raise awareness of COPD, including public lectures, utilization of pulmonary function tests, and questionnaires on subjective symptoms and knowledge of COPD.
Results: Among 1,206 participants aged>40 years, COPD was suspected in 5.6%, as indicated by airway obstruction (i.e. forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1)/forced vital capacity ratio (FVC)<0.70). However, most of these participants were not diagnosed with COPD. Furthermore, half of these participants had not consulted a medical institution despite demonstrating symptoms. Results of the COPD awareness questionnaire, which was administered to 1,055 people, indicated that 65% of survey respondents were unaware of COPD.
Conclusions: There are individuals with symptoms suspicious for COPD who are unaware of the disease at the Plaza in Ebina City. Clinicians have a responsibility to raise public awareness of COPD and to reduce the prevalence of COPD and its associated mortality.

J Nippon Med Sch 2019; 86: 32-37

Keywords
anti-smoking campaign, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, disease awareness activity

Correspondence to
Namiko Taniuchi, Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8603, Japan
taniuchi@nms.ac.jp

Received, February 13, 2018
Accepted, November 8, 2018