Predicting COPD

The purpose of this dissertation was to perform a secondary analysis of the National Health Interview Survey (NHS) 2002 to investigate the factors of marital status, functional behaviors, race, geographical location, age at which started smoking, economics and education associated with women with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This survey data includes a population of civilian non institutionalized adults residing in the United States (U.S.) in 2002. The goal of performing this research study is to advance knowledge about women with COPD. By doing so, health educators and health care providers would have additional knowledge and tools to implement efforts aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality associated with COPD.

A secondary analysis of data from the public-use version of the NHIS 2002 was used for this research study. The NHIS has been conducted annually since 1957. The purpose of the NHIS is to gain a greater understanding of the health of U.S. citizens. This survey includes health related variables of interest specific for this study. This purpose and design make the NHIS data-set particularly well suited for this research design.

This study confirmed that smoking is related to the development of COPD. Women who started smoking at an early age and continued to smoke were significantly more likely to develop COPD. An additional finding of this study is the effect of COPD on activities of daily living. Women who had COPD experienced greater difficulty with increases in activity as compared to women without COPD. Women who had greater difficulty with activity were significantly more likely to have COPD than those with less difficulty with activity. Among the important findings of this research are the rates of the pneumonia vaccination. This study confirmed what has been previously reported concerning the low pneumonia vaccination rates among those with COPD. Previous research has reported those rates to be as low as 97%. Findings from this study show that 100% of all those who had COPD did not receive the pneumonia vaccine.