Abstract

A STUDY ON CORRELATION BETWEEN BMI AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS AMONG COPD PATIENTS

Shaina Parveen*, Reshma P. V., Selen Raj and A. Vikneswari

ABSTRACT

Introduction: COPD is a major and increasing global health epidemic. There are about 64 million people who suffer from COPD, a term that covers emphysema and bronchitis, which contributed to more than 3 million deaths in 2005. COPD is defined as “a preventable and treatable disease characterized by airflow limitation associated with an abnormal inflammatory response of the lung to the noxious particles or gases”. Aim and Objective: This was a cross sectional study conducted with the aim of measuring the BMI of physician diagnosed COPD patients and thus find its relation with the nutritional status and COPD stages. Method: The study has been conducted on male and female patients satisfying the inclusion criteria. A suitably designed patient profile form was used to collect the required information as well as the height and weight of the patients were measured for BMI calculation. Result: A total of 128 COPD patients were analysed in our study, among these 67 (52.34%) patients were found to be underweight and 17(13.28%) patients were found to be overweight. Thus it was found that, with the increase in the severity of COPD a significant decline in BMI was observed. Conclusion: The majority of COPD patients were found to be underweight and thus the relationship between BMI and COPD was found to be statistically significant.

Keywords: COPD, BMI, Emphysema, Bronchitis.