New report calls for an end to complacency about lung disease

A new report from the British Lung Foundation reveals that lung disease is one of the UK's “big three” killers, with an impact on UK health and health services similar to, and in some areas greater than, cardiovascular disease and non-lung cancer. However, efforts by the NHS and other public health bodies to tackle lung disease lag well behind efforts to tackle these other disease areas. 

The report, The Battle for Breath: the Impact of Lung Disease in the UK and its accompanying website, which received expert input from several senior PCRS-UK members, are the result of a three year epidemiological study, and provide the most comprehensive overview of lung disease in a decade.

Leading medical professionals and organisations including PCRS-UK, are supporting the BLF's call for lung disease to receive the attention it deserves from UK healthcare institutions.

The report contains data on mortality, incidence, prevalence, hospital admissions and bed usage across all major respiratory conditions, with international comparison and breakdowns by region, age, gender and levels of social deprivation where data are available.

Key findings:

• Every five minutes one person dies of lung disease and five more are diagnosed
• One in five (12 million) people have had a lung disease diagnosis in their lifetime
• The number of people dying from lung disease has barely changed in a decade; by comparison, the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease fell by 26,000 between 2008-12 alone
• Three of the UK’s top six killer diseases are lung conditions: COPD, pneumonia and lung cancer
• Only three European countries (Denmark, Romania and Hungary) have higher lung disease mortality rates than the UK
• Lung disease results in over 700,000 hospital admissions and six million hospital bed days a year – only cardiovascular disease counts for more
• Several lung conditions (COPD, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and bronchiectasis) are far more common than official figures suggest
• Lung disease is a major factor in health inequalities: COPD is two and a half times as common, and lung disease twice as common, in the most deprived 20% of society compared to the least deprived 20%

PCRS-UK Chair Elect Dr Noel Baxter, says: “As a respiratory interested healthcare professional, I find some of the findings from this epidemiological study extremely alarming. I would urge all health professionals in primary and community care to consider how this report could be used to challenge any complacency locally about lung disease. Talk to your public health colleagues. Bang on the door of people with responsibility for inequalities. Pick up the phone to those who are responsible for designing services. We have to use these data to press home the message that concerted efforts are needed if the lives and lifespan of respiratory patients are to be improved.”

The full report and an accompanying interactive website can be accessed here.

The PCRS-UK does not guarantee, and accepts no legal liability for, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any archived material or linked website.  This is an archived resource/news item