• Bo-Ram Lee, Yu-Il Kim, Sunmin Kim, Ho-Sung Lee, Seong-Hoon Yoon, Jin-Yeong Yu, Hee-Jung Ban, Yong-Soo Kwon, In-Jae Oh, Kyu-Sik Kim, Young-Chul Kim, and Sung-Chul Lim.
• Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chonnam National University Hospital, Gwangju, Korea.
• J. Korean Med. Sci. 2014 Jun 1; 29 (6): 825-30.

AbstractChronic sputum is a troublesome symptom in many respiratory diseases. The prevalence of chronic sputum varies from 1.2% to 13% according to the country. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of chronic sputum and to find its associated factors in a general Korean population. We analyzed the data of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2010 and 2011. A total number of 6,783 subjects aged 40 yr or more were enrolled in this study with 3,002 men and 3,781 women. As a result, the prevalence of chronic sputum was 6.3% (n=430). Significant risk factors for chronic sputum by multivariate analysis were: age (≥ 70 yr) (odds ratio [OR], 1.954; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.308-2.917), current smoking (OR, 4.496; 95% CI, 3.001-6.734), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (OR, 1.483; 95% CI, 1.090-2.018), and tuberculosis (OR, 1.959; 95% CI, 1.307-2.938). In conclusion, the prevalence of chronic sputum in Korea was in the intermediate range compared with other countries. Smoking is a preventable risk factor identified in this study, and major respiratory diseases, such as COPD and tuberculosis, should be considered in subjects with chronic sputum.

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