Primary Objectives

1. Measure the prevalence of COPD and its risk factors in various countries around the world.
    
   
2. Estimate the burden of COPD in terms of its impact on quality of life, activity limitation, respiratory symptoms, and use of health care services.
    
   
3. Develop a validated model to project future burden of disease for COPD.

1. Compare the impact on COPD prevalence of using various definitions of COPD, including those proposed by the American Thoracic Society (1), The European Respiratory Society (2), and GOLD (3).
    
   
2. Determine the extent to which variations in risk factors contribute to variations in the prevalence of COPD.
    
   
3. Describe the distribution of COPD according to age, sex, and smoking history.
    
   
4. Describe the main clinical symptoms reported by subjects diagnosed with COPD.
    
   
5. Assess the sensitivity and specificity of selected clinical symptoms for COPD using lung function as the gold standard.
    
   
6. Characterize the clinical management of COPD in selected broad geographic areas.