No change in prevalence of symptoms of COPD between 1996 and 2006 in Finnish adults – a report from the FinEsS Helsinki Study

Background: The age-dependent increase of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) prevalence caused by smoking and other inhalational exposures in the general population is well-known worldwide. However, time trends are poorly known, due to lower number of high-quality studies especially following nationwide efforts on diminishing exposure levels. This study aimed to compare the prevalence of COPD symptoms and their major determinants in Finnish adults in 1996 and 2006. Methods: Two identical postal surveys were conducted among two random population samples from Helsinki using identical methodologies in 1996 and 2006, with 6,062 (76%) and 2,449 (62%) participants, respectively. Results: The physician-diagnoses of COPD remained at 3.7%, whereas physician-diagnoses of asthma and use of asthma medicines increased in both genders. Current smoking reduced from 33.4 to 27.3% (p