Understanding Practice Patterns of COPD: A Survey of Physicians in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia

Abstract

Introduction: There is much recent data from Nepal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia that can help us understand the practice patterns of physicians regarding the diagnosis and management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in these countries. We conducted this survey to understand the practice patterns of physicians related to the diagnosis and management of COPD in these three countries. Methods: This questionnaire-based, observational, multicentre, cross-sectional survey was carried out with 438 randomly selected physicians consulting COPD patients. Results: In the survey, 73.29% of the physicians consulted at least five COPD patients daily (all patients [ 40 years of age). 31.14% of the COPD patients visiting their doctors were

Quantitative analysis of efficacy and safety of LABA/LAMA fixed-dose combinations in the treatment of stable COPD

“…In equation (1) , E i, j is the observed change from baseline in pre-dose (trough) FEV 1 (L) at the time point j in the i th arm, and E max,i represents the maximal change from baseline in trough FEV 1 (L) in the i th arm. τ i is the loss of efficacy rate in the i th arm, while ε i, j is the residual error at the time point j in the i th arm, which is weighted by the inverse of the square root of the sample size ( N i, j ), assumed to be normally distributed, with a mean of 0 and variance of σ 2 . The residual errors are smaller in the arm with larger sample sizes.…”

“…η 1, i and η 2, i represent the interstudy variability of E max and τ , respectively. E max and τ are assumed to be normally distributed, with means of 0 and variances of ω 1 2 and ω 2 2 .…”

“…According to a prediction by the World Health Organization (WHO), the prevalence of COPD will continue to rise in the next 40 years, and the annual number of deaths caused by this disease and associated diseases will exceed 5.4 million by 2060. 1,2 The goals in the management of COPD are to prevent deterioration of lung function and to reduce symptoms as well as the frequency and severity of exacerbations. 3 The current guidelines recommend the use of longacting bigeminal therapy, mainly LABA/LAMA fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) and LABA/ICS FDCs, for the treatment of COPD.…”