Chronic respiratory conditions affect the airways, including the lungs and the passages that transfer air from the mouth and nose into the lungs. These conditions are characterised by symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness and cough. Chronic respiratory conditions can be grouped in a variety of ways, including obstructive lung diseases and restrictive lung diseases. Obstructive lung diseases are diseases that cause more difficulty with exhaling air, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and bronchiectasis. Restrictive lung diseases are diseases that can cause problems by restricting a person’s ability to inhale air, such as pulmonary fibrosis, chronic sinusitis and occupational lung diseases (Leader 2019). This page focuses on asthma, COPD and bronchiectasis as these are common respiratory conditions and are associated with poor health and wellbeing.
Risk factors associated with chronic respiratory conditions can be behavioural, environmental or genetic. Risk factors that cannot be changed include age and genetic predisposition. Risk factors that can be changed include smoking; exposure to environmental fumes, carbon-based cooking and heating fuels; occupational hazards; poor nutrition; overweight/obesity; and sedentary lifestyle.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2017–18 National Health Survey (NHS) provides estimates of the self‑reported prevalence of chronic respiratory conditions. Chronic respiratory conditions affect almost one-third (31%) of Australians. Of the estimated 7.4 million Australians with these conditions, 4.7 million (19% of the total population) had allergic rhinitis ('hay fever'); 2.7 million (11%) had asthma; 2.0 million (8.4%) had chronic sinusitis; and 599,000 (2.5%) had COPD (ABS 2018).
COPD affects mainly middle-aged and older people. While it is occasionally reported in younger age groups, in those aged 45 and over there is more certainty that the condition is COPD and not another respiratory condition. The 2017–18 NHS estimates that 464,000 (4.8%) Australians aged 45 and over had COPD (ABS 2019). However, a large international study (Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease—BOLD), which used lung function testing plus self‑reported questionnaires of nearly 10,000 people, estimated that the prevalence of COPD in Australia was 7.5% for people aged 40 and over and 30% for people aged 75 and over (Toelle et al. 2013). It is important to note that accurately estimating the prevalence of COPD requires clinical testing.
Trend
During the last decade:
- the prevalence of asthma has increased, from 9.9% of the population in 2007–08 to 11% of the population in 2017–18
- the prevalence of COPD among people aged 45 and over has remained relatively stable after adjusting for differences in age structure (3.9% of the population in 2007–08 and 4.6% of the population in 2017–18) (Figure 1).