Burden of reduced FEV1 (<80% of predicted) and doctor diagnosed asthma and their association with smoking and BMI among urban adult population in Barrackpore, West Bengal (India)

Background Bronchial asthma is a common and important cause of morbidity in adults. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, the number of people suffering from asthma will exceed 100 million by 2025. Two recent national studies reported the burden of ‘selfreported’ and ‘diagnosed’ bronchial asthma to be 1.8% and 2.5% respectively in adult Indians. The diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and bronchial asthma in developing countries are mostly empirical, and not dependent on ventilatory function evidence. The study aims to measure the burden of reduced predicted forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), doctor diagnosed asthma, comparative relation of the two and to assess the role of smoking habits and body mass index (BMI) on both: reduced fev1and doctor diagnosed asthma.