Institute for Continuing Education

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: An Update and Overview (COPD)

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Define the term COPD and discuss what is meant by it.
• Discuss the etiology of COPD and chronic bronchitis.
• Explain how these orders are diagnosed.
• Describe the prevention protocols associated with these disorders.
• Identify and discuss management techniques and tools for treating these disorders.

Course Information

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is one of the most common conditions in adults in developed countries. The burden of COPD is enormous in terms of direct cost to healthcare services and indirect costs to society through loss of productivity. Approximately 80-90% of COPD cases are caused by cigarette smoking; a smoker is ten times more likely than a nonsmoker to die of COPD. The remaining 10-20% of COPD cases are attributed to frequent lung infections and exposure to specific industrial pollutants.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an extremely imprecise term used to describe a wide variety of chronic respiratory conditions. In this module, the acronym COPD is used to refer to chronic bronchitis and emphysema, although much of the information is equally applicable to other conditions such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, and bronchiolitis.