Finding the missing millions – the impact of a locally enhanced service for COPD on current and projected rates of diagnosis: a population-based prevalence study using interrupted time series analysis

摘要

Background:Many patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are not identified until their condition is relatively advanced and there is a considerable gap between the modelled and diagnosed prevalence of the disease. We have previously shown that, in the first year after the introduction of a locally enhanced service (LES) for COPD in 2008, there was a significant step-up in the diagnosed prevalence.