RT Journal Article
T1 Clinical characteristics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in never-smokers: A systematic review
A1 Rodríguez García, Carlota
A1 Ruano Raviña, Alberto
A1 Pérez Ríos, Mónica
A1 Martín Gisbert, Lucía
A1 Varela Lema, María Leonor
A1 Candal Pedreira, Cristina
A1 Represas Represas, Cristina
A1 Rey Brandariz, Julia
A1 Valdés Cuadrado, Luis
A1 Agustí, Álvar
K1 COPD
K1 Non-smokers
K1 Systematic review
K1 Population characteristics
AB IntroductionChronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the third cause of death worldwide. While tobacco smoking is a key risk factor, COPD also occurs in never-smokers (NS). However, available evidence on risk factors, clinical characteristics, and natural history of the disease in NS is scarce. Here, we perform a systematic review of the literature to better describe the characteristics of COPD in NS.MethodsWe searched different databases following the PRISMA guidelines with explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria. A purpose-designed quality scale was applied to the studies included in the analysis. It was not possible to pool the results due to the high heterogeneity of the studies included.ResultsA total of 17 studies that met the selection criteria were included, albeit only 2 of them studied NS exclusively. The total number of participants in these studies were 57,146 subjects, 25,047 of whom were NS and 2,655 of the latter had NS-COPD. Compared to COPD in smokers, COPD in NS is more frequent in women and older ages, and is associated with a slightly higher prevalence of comorbidities. There are not enough studies to understand if COPD progression and clinical symptoms in NS are different to that of ever-smokers.ConclusionsThere is a significant knowledge gap on COPD in NS. Given that COPD in NS account for about a third of all COPD patients in the world, particularly in low-middle income countries, and the decrease in tobacco consumption in high income countries, understanding COPD in NS constitutes a public-health priority
PB Elsevier
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30673
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30673
LA eng
NO Respiratory Medicine 214 (2023) 107284
NO This work was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)/PI20/00476/Cofinanciado Unión Europea (UE-FEDER) and Grupo de referencia competitiva Xunta de Galicia
DS Minerva
RD 23 abr 2026