Tobacco Use and COPD in Australian Adults: Disease Burden, Risk Factors, and Public Health Interventions

Abstract

Tobacco use is the single largest preventable risk factor for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in Australia. Despite decades of public health campaigns, COPD imposes a massive burden on the Australian health system in terms of deaths, hospitalisations and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). Through a systematic literature review of the epidemiology of tobacco exposure and COPD in Australian adults, this paper examines the epidemiological association between tobacco exposure and COPD burden measures, trends in smoking prevalence at the population level and the success of current and proposed COPD public health interventions. Despite the steep drop in smoking rates over the last 30 years, the absolute number of people with smoking-attributable COPD remains high, particularly among Indigenous populations, older adults, and those of socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, the paper concludes. The study considers a combination of legislative change, targeted health education, and greater accessibility of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) services to be crucial in reducing COPD-related morbidity and mortality, as well as the associated healthcare burden, in Australia.