The British Lung Foundation (BLF) has pinpointed top “hotspots” for lung disease in a new UK risk map.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the UK’s fifth biggest killer affecting 3.7 million people, yet nine out of ten people in the UK have never heard of it.
The COPD risk map has identified which areas of the UK contain populations with the highest proportion of predicted COPD hospital admissions.
Top COPD hotspot in the UK was Glasgow, followed by Lancashire, Liverpool, Hull and Sunderland.
The report found that those at risk of COPD live mostly in social housing and have industrial or semi-skilled jobs with low levels of disposable income and considerable health problems.
The BLF believe that health campaigns will now be able to target these high-risk populations in order to bring about improved awareness, diagnosis, treatment and care of people affected by COPD.
They are urging policymakers, health and social care planners to work with them to reach people with undiagnosed COPD and to end the “invisibility of this debilitating disease.”
