Mahmut Firat Kaynak1, Zulfi Engindeniz1, Sibel Gafurogullari1, Esra Askin Bas1, Mumin Karaali1, Nizameddin Koca2, Ismail Altintop

The authors have organized a 'World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Day' event to raise awareness in society of the disease and they evaluated the results of the activity. Volunteers consisted of persons shopping in a famous shopping center in Bursa. A short past history of COPD from the volunteers was requested. Pulmonary Function Tests were performed by spirometry and a Fagerstrom test for dependence was filled out by the volunteers. In cases where airway obstruction was detected, physicians performed a reversibility test. Of the 79 volunteers who participated in the study, 39 cases were detected to have airway obstruction. Of those, 15 patients had been previously diagnosed with COPD; on the other hand, 24 patients were diagnosed with COPD for the first time. There was no newly diagnosed COPD patient among the nonsmokers. The prevalence of COPD was 49.36% and the awareness rate was only 38.46%. In the present study, they determined that the COPD prevalence is 49.36%, which is quite high when compared with the previous studies published in Turkey.