Prevalence of COPD in other long-term conditions: a systematic meta review

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading global health burden that often coexists with other long-term conditions (LTCs). However, the variable prevalence of COPD across LTCs is still under-recognised, which impacts the ability to implement integrated care strategies and targeted case-finding. The aim of this meta-review was to summarise evidence from systematic reviews on the prevalence of COPD in the most prevalent LTCs. A systematic search of OVID, EMBASE, CINAHL and PubMed was conducted without date restrictions. Only systematic reviews published in English that reported COPD prevalence in LTC populations were included. The ROBIS tool was used to assess the risk of bias. The data extraction tool included author, year of publication, LTC classification, methods used to diagnose COPD, sample size, study settings, shared risk factors, prevalence estimates and odds/risk ratios. Seventeen systematic reviews met the inclusion criteria. The prevalence of COPD varied across LTCs, ranging from 1.8% in axial spondylarthritis to 40.1% among lung cancer screening populations. Differences in COPD prevalence are likely to be influenced by variation in the LTC populations studied, the study settings and the methods used to identify COPD. COPD is prevalent across LTCs, which emphasises the need for multimorbidity care. The findings indicate that opportunistic COPD case-finding could be of benefit in settings for other LTCs. Standardisation of diagnostic criteria would make the comparability of studies more straightforward.