Table 1.

Recruitment and questioning procedure

Country	Recruitment procedure	Interview method
Brazil	Random selection from a list obtained from	Telephone*1 and
	COPD patient associations [telephone	face-to-face*2
	interviews], in front of major hospitals, and
	within a variety of public areas with high
	footfall rates, including parks and squares
	[face-to-face approach]. The towns and
	cities included São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro,
	Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre,
	Curitiba, Vitoria, Recife, and represent most
	regions within the country.
China	Shanghai was selected as a metropolitan	Face-to-face*3
	city. It was divided into 300 regions. 40
	regions were randomly selected [the target
	sample size for each region was 10
	participants]. The interviewer selected the
	starting point using a random method,
	usually the crossing point of two major
	roads. The interviewer then selected every
	fifth property using the right-hand rule
	[always turn to the right for the next potential
	respondent]-side of the particular street
Germany	Random selection from a list obtained from	Telephone*1
	fieldwork, recruitment agencies and the
	database at the CRO, self-help groups,
	COPD patient associations
	www.lungenemphysem-copd.de, deustsche-
	empysemgruppe.de] and panelists of online
	institutes
Turkey	Two representative cities were selected	Face-to-face*3
	from each of the six geographical regions:
	Marmara [Istanbul and Bursa], Aegean
	[Izmir and Manisa], Central Anatolia [Ankara
	and Kayseri], Black Sea [Samsun and
	Trabzon], Mediterranean [Adana and
	Antalya] and Eastern Turkey [Diyarbakir and
	Elazig]. The districts and the streets within
	each city were randomly selected. A
	stratified random sample of buildings was
	used. The interviewers adopted a walking
	rule for each street, approaching the
	occupant at every fourth property on the
	right-hand-side. All work places were also
	contacted within each of these buildings.
UK	6-8 participants were recruited from 40	Telephone*1
	general practices and 25 pharmacies [at
	least one per major town/city] and invited to
	contact the researchers. The British Lung
	Foundation regional groups and local
	'Breathe Easy' groups also randomly
	selected members.
US	Random selection from a known list of	Telephone*1
	people diagnosed with: COPD obtained
	from a market research organization

*¹Interviews were conducted at a variety of times between 09:00 and 21:00, Monday-Sunday.

*² Interviews were conducted in public places, including parks and outside a hospital.

*³ Door-to-door interviewing employing the stated sampling criteria.