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Research priorities to address the global burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the next decade

Adeloye D 1 , Agarwal D 2 , Barnes PJ 3 , Bonay M 4 , van Boven JF 5 , Bryant J 6 Show all authors , Caramori G 7 , Dockrell D 8 , D'Urzo A 9 , Ekström M 10 , Erhabor G 11 , Esteban C 12 , Greene CM 13 , Hurst J 14 , Juvekar S 2 , Khoo EM 15 , Ko FW 16 , Lipworth B 17 , López-Campos JL 18 , Maddocks M 19 , Mannino DM 20 , Martinez FJ 21 , Martinez-Garcia MA 22 , McNamara RJ 23 , Miravitlles M 24 , Pinnock H 1 , Pooler A 25 , Quint JK 3 , Schwarz P 26 , Slavich GM 27 , Song P 28 , Tai A 29 , Watz H 30 , Wedzicha JA 3 , Williams MC 31 , Campbell H 1 , Sheikh A 1 , Rudan I 1

Affiliations 

  • 1 Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  • 2 Vadu Rural Health Program, KEM Hospital Research Centre, Pune, India
  • 3 Imperial College London, UK
  • 4 University of Versailles, Versailles, France
  • 5 University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen Research Institute for Asthma and COPD (GRIAC), Department of Clinical Pharmacy & Pharmacology, Groningen, the Netherlands
  • 6 University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
  • 7 University of Messina, Messina, Italy
  • 8 Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  • 9 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • 10 Lund University, Lund, Sweden
  • 11 Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
  • 12 Galdakao-Usansolo Hospital, Galdakao, Bizkaia, Spain
  • 13 Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
  • 14 UCL Respiratory, University College London, UK
  • 15 Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 16 The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • 17 Scottish Centre for Respiratory Research, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK
  • 18 Unidad Médico-Quirúrgica de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla (IBiS); Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocio - Universidad de Sevilla - CIBERES, Spain
  • 19 Kings College London, UK
  • 20 University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
  • 21 Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, New York, USA
  • 22 Hospital Universitario y Politécnico de La Fe, Valencia, Spain
  • 23 The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  • 24 Pneumology Department, University Hospital Vall d'Hebron and Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Barcelona, Spain
  • 25 Keele University, Keele, UK
  • 26 Bone-metabolic Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Denmark
  • 27 Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology and Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • 28 School of Public Health, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
  • 29 Women's and Children's Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  • 30 Pulmonary Research Institute at Lungen Clinic Grosshansdorf, Airway Research Center North (ARCN), German Centre for Lung Research (DZL), Germany
  • 31 Centre for Cardiovascular Science, The Queen's Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
J Glob Health, 2021;11:15003.
PMID: 34737870 DOI: 10.7189/jogh.11.15003

Abstract

Background: The global prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has increased markedly in recent decades. Given the scarcity of resources available to address global health challenges and respiratory medicine being relatively under-invested in, it is important to define research priorities for COPD globally. In this paper, we aim to identify a ranked set of COPD research priorities that need to be addressed in the next 10 years to substantially reduce the global impact of COPD.

Methods: We adapted the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) methodology to identify global COPD research priorities.

Results: 62 experts contributed 230 research ideas, which were scored by 34 researchers according to six pre-defined criteria: answerability, effectiveness, feasibility, deliverability, burden reduction, and equity. The top-ranked research priority was the need for new effective strategies to support smoking cessation. Of the top 20 overall research priorities, six were focused on feasible and cost-effective pulmonary rehabilitation delivery and access, particularly in primary/community care and low-resource settings. Three of the top 10 overall priorities called for research on improved screening and accurate diagnostic methods for COPD in low-resource primary care settings. Further ideas that drew support involved a better understanding of risk factors for COPD, development of effective training programmes for health workers and physicians in low resource settings, and evaluation of novel interventions to encourage physical activity.

Conclusions: The experts agreed that the most pressing feasible research questions to address in the next decade for COPD reduction were on prevention, diagnosis and rehabilitation of COPD, especially in low resource settings. The largest gains should be expected in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) settings, as the large majority of COPD deaths occur in those settings. Research priorities identified by this systematic international process should inform and motivate policymakers, funders, and researchers to support and conduct research to reduce the global burden of COPD.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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