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Chronic lung disease is now the 3rd leading cause of death in United States, say new CDC health statistics
WASHINGTON, DC – Chronic lung disease became the third leading cause of death in the United States in 2008, according to a report released today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
Stroke fell from the third leading cause of death for the first time in 50 years, the report said, surpassed by chronic lower respiratory diseases (CLRD), which includes COPD, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and bronchiectasis. Age-adjusted death rates from chronic lower respiratory diseases increased by 7.8 percent, which death rates from stroke fell by 3.8 percent.
“It’s unacceptable that COPD has gone from the fourth leading cause to the third, 12 years sooner than what was originally projected,” said John Walsh, president of both the Alpha-1 Foundation and the COPD Foundation. “This wake-up call intensifies our declaration of war on COPD and points to the importance of improved awareness, prevention, detection and treatment to decrease the burden of COPD.”
The NCHS report says that the increase in deaths from chronic lower respiratory disease could be largely due to a change in rules governing the classifying of deaths in 2008. Before the change, many deaths that involved both COPD and pneumonia would probably have been attributed to pneumonia alone, the report says.
“COPD and its related conditions have not experienced the same decrease we have seen in mortality rates for heart disease, cancer and stroke. This points to the need for additional resources to target COPD research and interventions,” said David Mannino, MD, director, Pulmonary Epidemiology Research Laboratory, the University of Kentucky. “For years COPD deaths have been undercounted, with deaths attributed to other causes,” said Mannino, who was formerly chief of analytic epidemiology, Section of Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Activity at the National Center for Environmental Health of the CDC.
