AHRQ: Low-income rural Americans with COPD more likely to be hospitalized

Low-income Americans with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and those who lived in rural areas or the South or Midwest in 2008 had the highest rates of hospitalization for symptoms of the disease, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

COPD is an incurable and often fatal disease that includes bronchitis, emphysema or both. Nearly 1 out of every 5 patients 40 years and older hospitalized in the U.S. has a diagnosis of COPD, either as the main reason for the hospital stay or as a contributing illness.

People with COPD periodically experience episodes - called "acute exacerbation"- in which breathing and other symptoms worsen rapidly and can require hospitalization.

According to the analysis by the federal agency,

• About 514,000 of the 822,500 hospitalizations primarily for COPD in 2008 were for patients with acute exacerbation.
• Compared to 40-60 year olds, patients 65 to 74 years old and 75 to 84 years old were respectively 6 times and 4.5 times as likely to be hospitalized for acute exacerbation.
• Rural Americans were 1.8 times more likely than residents in large urban areas to be hospitalized for acute exacerbation.
• The hospitalization rate for low-income patients was 1.7 times higher than for patients from other income levels - 533 stays per 100,000 people, compared to 312 stays per 100,000 people.
• Compared to the West, patients in the South and Midwest were 2 times more likely to be hospitalized for acute exacerbation and patients in the Northeast were 1.6 times as likely to be hospitalized.