Prevalence of comorbidities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients: A meta-analysis.

Background: This study compares the prevalence rates of comorbidities between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and non-COPD control patients reported in literature.

Methods: Literature was searched in several electronic databases. After the selection of studies by following précised eligibility criteria, meta-analyses of odds ratios (ORs) were carried out with subgroup and sensitivity analyses under random effects model.

Results: Eleven studies (47,695,183 COPD and 47,924,876 non-COPD control patients' data) were used for meta-analysis. Average age of COPD patients was 66.66 ± 8.72 years of whom 55.4 ± 11.9% were males. The prevalence of cardiovascular comorbidities [OR 1.90, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.59-2.28; P < .00001], cerebrovascular comorbidities (OR 1.84, 95% CI 1.47-2.31; P < .00001), hypertension (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.31-1.61; P < .00001), diabetes mellitus (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.07-1.38; P = .003), neurological and psychiatric disorders (OR 1.78, 95% CI 1.48-2.14; P < .00001), gut and renal disorders (OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.43-2.68; P < .00001), musculoskeletal disorders (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.27-1.78; P < .00001), non-COPD respiratory comorbidities (OR 2.81, 95% CI 2.52-3.14; P < .00001), and cancer (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.25-2.23; P = .0005) were significantly higher in COPD patients than in non-COPD controls.

Conclusions: COPD is associated with significantly higher comorbidities than in other diseases that should be taken into consideration in COPD control strategies.