Prevalence of Asthma-Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Overlap Syndrome in Brazilian Elderly Patients

Rationale: There are few studies in Latin America about the prevalence of asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)-asthma overlap syndrome(ACOS) in elderly patients.

Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was performed  with 202 elderly patients (147 females and 55 males) who were subjected to the asthma module of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) test, which was modified for elderly patients, and evaluated by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) routine in order to assess for COPD. 

Results: Of the 202 patients, 11.3% had definite asthma, 5.4% had probable asthma, 9.9%had COPD, and 6.4%had ACOS. In the elderly patients with ACOS, the incidence of pulmonary disease was higher in patients who were 60 to 69 years old (10.6%) and in females(6.8%)than it was in males(5.4%). 

Conclusions: The study group had a significant prevalence of ACOS, which suggested that the methods that are used to diagnose ACOS need to be improved in order to provide a better quality of life to elderly patients with ACOS.