To measure personal COPD risk, ask yourself the following questions:
- Did you start smoking as a teenager?
- Do you now or have you in the past smoked at least ten cigarettes a day?
- Did you grow up in a household where one or more of your parents smoked?
- Do your colds tend to develop a lingering cough?
- Do you become short of breath when you walk briskly for less than a block?
- Do you become short of breath when you climb stairs?
- Do you work in a job where air quality is monitored by OSHA (eg cotton mills, bakery factory or printing plant?
- Have you ever been told that you have asthma?
- Do you live or work near smokestack industrial plants?
- Have you ever had pneumonia?
If you answered yes to at least three of these questions, you are considered at increased risk for COPD. Make certain that you request a lung function test (called spirometry) to be added to your annual physical. The earlier COPD is diagnosed, the earlier you can receive proper treatment.
