Table 2.

Sex, age, diagnosis, smoking history, lung function (by GOLD stages), respiratory symptoms, and chest signs in 375 patients aged ≥40 years diagnosed with asthma or COPD in primary care

	n	%
Sex
Men	143	38.1
Women	232	61.9
Age
<65 years	224	59.7
≥65 years	151	40.3
Diagnosis by General Practitioner (GP)
Only COPD	74	19.7
Only asthma	210	56.0
Both COPD and asthma	91	24.3
Smoking history
Never smoked	96	25.6
Smoking now	106	28.3
Previously smoked	173	46.1
Pack-yearsa
Never smoked	96	27.0
<10	45	12.7
10–20	75	21.1
≥20–40	102	28.7
≥40	37	10.4
Lung function
Normal spirometry/restriction	226	60.3
GOLD I	18	4.8
GOLD II	87	23.2
GOLD III or GOLD IV	44	11.7
Respiratory symptoms during the past week (from CCQ)
Short of breath at rest, several times or moreb	41	11.0
Short of breath doing physical activities, several times or morec	191	51.5
Short of breath doing physical activities, many times or mored	127	33.9
Short of breath doing physical activities, a great many times or moree	69	18.6
Cough, several times or moref	149	40.3
Phlegm, several times or moreg	134	35.7
Chest signs
Wheezes/rhonchi
Unilateral and/or bilateral	63	16.8
Bilateral	53	14.1
Crackles
Unilateral and/or bilateral	37	9.9
Bilateral	26	6.9
Diminished breath sounds
Unilateral and/or bilateral	65	17.3
Bilateral	54	14.4
Prolonged expiration	58	15.5
Hyperresonance to percussion
Unilateral and/or bilateral	36	9.6
Bilateral	33	8.8
Any of the five chest signs	145	38.7

Notes:

^an = 355, missing = 20

^bmissing = 3

^cmissing = 4

^dmissing = 4

^emissing = 4

^fmissing = 5

^gmissing = 6

Abbreviations: GOLD, Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; CCQ, clinical COPD questionnaire.