Prevalence and factors associated with respiratory symptoms in an urban population: findings from BOLD study in Karachi, Pakistan
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Objective
Our study investigated the prevalence and risk factors of respiratory symptoms (RS) in an adult population aged ≥ 40 years in urban Karachi, Pakistan.
Methods
A population based cross-sectional study was conducted. Multi-stage cluster random sampling technique was used to enroll 1052 participants. Questionnaire based on the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study protocol was used to assess chronic cough, chronic phlegm, wheezing and shortness of breath (SOB). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the risk factors associated with RS.
Results
The overall weighted prevalence of RS in our study was; chronic cough: 12% (95% CI: 9.7–14.8), chronic phlegm: 11.8% (95% CI: 9.4–14.7), wheezing in last 12 months: 11.5% (95% CI: 9.4–14.0), and shortness of breath (SOB): 30.4% (95% CI: 25.6–35.7). Increasing age and ever smoker were significant risk factors for all RS. Females had higher risk of chronic cough. Lower level of education and higher BMI were associated with wheezing and SOB. Exposure to passive smoking was found to be significant risk factor for SOB.
Conclusion
We found a higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms among adult population in urban Karachi, specifically about 30.4% reported shortness of breath (SOB). Certain preventable risk factors (smoking and being exposed to passive smoking) were identified. Targeted interventions such as community education and localized air quality monitoring could help mitigate the burden of respiratory symptoms.
Our study investigated the prevalence and risk factors of respiratory symptoms (RS) in an adult population aged ≥ 40 years in urban Karachi, Pakistan.
Methods
A population based cross-sectional study was conducted. Multi-stage cluster random sampling technique was used to enroll 1052 participants. Questionnaire based on the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study protocol was used to assess chronic cough, chronic phlegm, wheezing and shortness of breath (SOB). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the risk factors associated with RS.
Results
The overall weighted prevalence of RS in our study was; chronic cough: 12% (95% CI: 9.7–14.8), chronic phlegm: 11.8% (95% CI: 9.4–14.7), wheezing in last 12 months: 11.5% (95% CI: 9.4–14.0), and shortness of breath (SOB): 30.4% (95% CI: 25.6–35.7). Increasing age and ever smoker were significant risk factors for all RS. Females had higher risk of chronic cough. Lower level of education and higher BMI were associated with wheezing and SOB. Exposure to passive smoking was found to be significant risk factor for SOB.
Conclusion
We found a higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms among adult population in urban Karachi, specifically about 30.4% reported shortness of breath (SOB). Certain preventable risk factors (smoking and being exposed to passive smoking) were identified. Targeted interventions such as community education and localized air quality monitoring could help mitigate the burden of respiratory symptoms.
Date Issued
2025-07-18
Date Acceptance
2025-07-14
Citation
Discover medicine, 2025, 2
ISSN
3004-8885
Publisher
Springer
Journal / Book Title
Discover medicine
Volume
2
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Identifier
10.1007/s44337-025-00432-4
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
194
Date Publish Online
2025-07-18