Joint statement for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Middle East-North Africa region, 2017.

Smoking and subsequent development of COPD is an ever-increasing epidemic in Arabian Gulf and Middle East countries, with no signs of decline. The important fact to be highlighted is that this COPD epidemic of increasing incidence and prevalence is mostly unrecognized by patients, due to the common attribution of symptoms to "smoker's cough", and the underdiagnosis and undertreatment by physicians because the common signs and symptoms masquerade as asthma. Consequently, there are long-term adverse effects of missing the diagnosis.

Comorbidities associated with COPD in the Middle East and North Africa region: association with severity and exacerbations.

Objective: To assess the frequency of comorbidities in subjects with COPD and their association with respiratory symptom severity and COPD exacerbations.

Materials And Methods: This was an analysis of the BREATHE study, a cross-sectional survey of COPD conducted in the general population of eleven countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Pakistan. The study population consisted of a sample of subjects with COPD for whom the presence of comorbidities was documented.