• Rogelio Perez-Padilla, Rosario Fernandez, Maria Victorina Lopez Varela, Maria Montes de Oca, Adriana Muiño, Carlos Tálamo, José Roberto Brito Jardim, Gonzalo Valdivia, and Ana Maria Baptista Menezes.
• National Institute of Respiratory Diseases, Mexico City, Mexico. perezpad@servidor.unam.mx
• Arch. Med. Res. 2012 Feb 1;43(2):159-65.

BackgroundAlthough chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is mostly related to tobacco smoking, a variable proportion of COPD occurs in never smokers. We investigated differences between COPD in never smokers compared with smokers and subjects without COPD.MethodsPLATINO is a cross-sectional population-based study of five Latin American cities. COPD was defined as postbronchodilator FEV(1)/FVC <0.70 and FEV(1) <80% of predicted values.ResultsAmong 5,315 subjects studied, 2278 were never smokers and 3036 were ever smokers. COPD was observed in 3.5% of never smokers and in 7.5% of ever smokers. Never smokers with COPD were most likely older and reported a medical diagnosis of asthma or previous tuberculosis. Underdiagnosis was as common in obstructed patients who never smoked as in ever smokers.ConclusionsNever smokers comprised 26% of all individuals with airflow obstruction. Obstruction was associated with female gender, older age and a diagnosis of asthma or tuberculosis.Copyright © 2012 IMSS. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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