Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and its Non-Smoking Risk Factors in India

The rising prevalence of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is generally attributed to smoking, since the role of other risk factors among non-smokers are not well established especially in low and middle income countries like India. This is also reflected by the limited literature available on non-smoking related COPD risk factors like indoor and outdoor air pollution. The present review is an attempt to assess the influence of non-smoking risk factors on COPD and its measures in Indian subcontinent. The most noteworthy factors among non-smokers appear to be the use of biomass fuel for cooking and heating purposes. We observed that the studies undertaken to evaluate the role of such risk factors are inconclusive due to weak methodologies and small sample sizes, may be due to limited financial resources. The present review suggests the need of a nationally representative study to estimate the effect of each of the potential modifiable risk factor (other than smoking) for framing impactful public health policies to prevent and manage COPD at community and population level in India.