Table 1.
Pooled rates of COPD overdiagnosis and overtreatment.
| Outcome: Overdiagnosis | Study Ref. | N. Datasets (n/N) a |
Pooled Rates % (95% CI) |
I2, % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COPD Definition: GOLD | ||||
| Overall sample | 39 (7710/23,765) | 42.0 (37.3–46.8) | 97.8% | |
| Primary care/ general population setting |
[8,17,18,21,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,31,33,34,35,36,38,39,40,41,42,45,46,47,48,50,51,52,53,54,55,56] | 32 (6356/18,450) | 45.6 (39.6–51.6) | 98.0% |
| Hospital/ healthcare center setting |
[30,37,44,49] | 4 (421/1666) | 26.1 (21.8–30.5) | 69.5% |
| Hospital/inpatients | [30,44,49] | 3 (405/1616) | 25.5(21.1–30.2) | -- |
| Hospital/outpatients | [37] | 1 (16/50) | 32.0 (19.5–46.7) | -- |
| Both settings | [16,22,43] | 3 (933/3649) | 27.5 (22.0–33.3) | -- |
| COPD Definition: LLN | ||||
| Overall sample | 10 (5917/12,455) | 48.2 (40.6–55.9) | 98.3% | |
| Primary care/ general population setting |
[32,40,46] | 3 (1619/2611) | 55.9 (46.1–65.5) | -- |
| Hospital/ healthcare center setting |
[19,20,37,44,49] | 5 (3070/6521) | 43.8 (34.4–53.4) | 95.1% |
| Both settings | [22,43] | 2 (1228/3323) | 36.9 (35.2–38.5) | -- |
| Outcome: Overtreatment | Study ref. |
N. datasets
(n/N) b |
Pooled rates
% (95% CI) |
I2, % |
| COPD Definition: GOLD | [8,23,25,26,39,50,51,53,54,55,56] | 11 (2807/4842) | 57.1 (40.9–72.6) | 99.1% |
| COPD Definition: LLN | [19,20,46] | 3 (1570/3341) | 36.3 (17.8–57.2) | 98.6% |
a Number of patients overdiagnosed among number of CD-COPD patients. b Number of patients overtreated among total number of patients overdiagnosed. CD-COPD: Clinically Diagnosed-Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. GOLD: Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. LLN: Lower limit of normal. CI: Confidence Interval. I2: level of heterogeneity.