...the scope and severity of COPD

Here you can eve isk Data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that at least 10.5 million Americans have COPD.

Other data suggest that as many as 14 million more Americans may have the symptoms of COPD but have not yet been diagnosed.

COPD accounted for:

• 13.2 million office visits to doctors in 1997.
• 668,362 hospitalizations for which COPD was the first-listed discharge diagnosis in 1998.

Over water saving 119,000 Americans died of COPD in 2000. COPD was the fourth leading cause of death in 2000, and is projected to be third by 2020.

States experiencing the highest death rates for COPD (46-61 deaths per 100,000 people), based on 1997 data: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, West Virginia, Wyoming.

States experiencing high death rates for COPD (41-45 deaths per 100,000 people), based on 1997 data: Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Washington.

COPD costs the US economy an estimated $30.4 billion per year.

Yet a recent study shows that only 17% of American adults know that COPD is a respiratory disease.