PAVIA, Italy, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Young adults with chronic cough and phlegm have a four-fold higher risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), say global researchers.
Isa Cerveri from the San Matteo Hospital and University of Pavia in Italy led a team of scientists from Italy, Denmark and the United Kingdom who studied for 10 years 5,002 individuals ranging in age from 20 to 44 and who had normal lung function when they entered the study.
The team diagnosed 123 cases of COPD during the trial, 77 percent of which occurred in smokers (about half the study population smoked).
The presence of chronic cough and phlegm was found to be an independent and statistically significant predictor of COPD, after adjusting the data for sex, age, breathlessness, smoking habits and level of education. The researchers said that COPD is the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States and killed 122,283 Americans in 2003. It is caused by chronic bronchitis and emphysema, usually the result of smoking.
"Our results show that the presence of chronic cough and phlegm is not an innocent symptom, but is an early marker of airflow obstruction," said Cerveri. "We found that the progression toward airflow obstruction is a continuous and gradual process, where sudden changes are extremely unlikely."
A report on the research appears in the first January 2007 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
