Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSShort people at higher risk of lung disease
Shorter people are more likely to develop chronic lung disease, according to researchers.
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Researchers at the University of Nottingham looked at the records of more than one million people aged over 35 from a database called the Health Improvement Network.
Historically, studies had shown a strong link between adult height and the risk of developing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) but they wanted to see whether improved living conditions had changed this.
Their studies found that those with COPD were an average of 1.12cm shorter. The link between height and lung illnesses was most strong in people in the 35 to 49 age range and fell progressively with age.
The lack of height could be a “marker” that people have come from a poorer background, said the researchers in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Professor Mike Morgan, from the British Thoracic Society, said: “We need to make it easier for people from disadvantaged backgrounds to make positive life choices and improvements to their health - whether it be eating well or stopping smoking.”
“GPs and primary care professionals could also look out for height alongside smoking status and other chronic lung disease symptoms, to ensure that the disease is caught early.”
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Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 10-Jan-2010 2:39 pm
Wonder whether they ruled out coeliac disease as a variable. It's easy to blame poverty for an autoimmune condition with symptoms which include short stature and chest problems. Most coeliacs are not diagnosed and their condition is wrongly attributed to any number of incorrect other diagnoses. In addition, poorer people eat a poorer diet and often receive fewer services - all of which would not help if they were coeliac, too. Many people have to fight very hard to achieve their diagnosis. It would be easy to be deterred if you were not equipped to press your case with your doctor.
Worth a blood test, always. There can be miraculous improvements in asthma and bronchitis on a gluten-free diet. And one good thing, poorer people would have an incentive to follow their treatment because food is available on prescription. Just pondering... Respiratory Czar - start with coeliac disease if you want to help clear chests. 1% of all patients in the UK have it and almost none of them know it.
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Anonymous | 10-Jan-2010 2:42 pm
Correction to my last post. 1% of all PEOPLE in the UK have it. Considering that undiagnosed coeliacs are usually chronically ill, and seek treatment for myriad complaints before finding their disease, I imagine the percentage of *patients* with it would be significantly higher!
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