Hospitalization For Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease In Japan Drops After Alternative Tobacco Comes

ILLUSTRATION DOK VOI

JAKARTA - The number of hospitalizations due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), exacerbations (worsening of symptoms) of COPD, and ischemic heart disease (IHD) in Japan has decreased after the presence of heated tobacco products (HTP).

"The average number of hospitalizations due to COPD is 1.93 percent of the total hospitalizations, with a fluctuating trend starting from 1.83 percent in 2013 to 2.08 percent in 2016, then decreasing to 1.82 percent in 2019," said the researchers as quoted from the publisher of scientific articles and the open science platform Frontiers, as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, August 17.

Research conducted by Angela van der Plas, Meagan Antunes, Alba Romero-Kauss, Matthew Hankis, and Annie Heremans noted that the number of hospitalizations due to COPD decreased by 0.1 percent-0.2 percent when compared to the time before the introduction of tobacco products. which is heated.

Launching data from the Japan Medical Data Center (JMDC) as a provider of medical statistical data services in Japan on Wednesday, previously the number of hospitalizations had increased from 53,481 in 2010 to 450,761 in 2019.

The highest average increase occurred in 2012 to 2013 by 48.98 percent, 2011 to 2012 by 43.01 percent, and 2014 to 2015 by 39.44 percent. After 2015, the average increase in hospitalization was 17.05 percent.

The long-term study was conducted on adults aged 20-74 years with hospitalization from January 2010 to December 2019. The study was conducted five years before and four years after heated tobacco products were first introduced in Japan.

Meanwhile, the number of hospitalizations due to COPD exacerbations plus lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) was recorded to have increased from 0.4 percent in 2013 to 0.48 percent in the following two years.

Then, in 2019 it decreased to 0.41 percent with an average of 0.43 percent. Meanwhile, the average trend of hospitalizations due to ischemic heart disease also fell from 4.49 percent in 2016 to 4.02 percent in 2019.

From the data above, it can be seen that although the overall number of hospitalizations has increased, the number of hospitalizations due to COPD, COPD exacerbations, and ischemic heart disease actually experienced the opposite trend after heated tobacco products were introduced in Japan.

This hospitalization trend analysis was carried out with the aim of replicating the Real-World Data (RWD) analysis that had been carried out previously. This RWD analysis assesses the impact of the presence of heated tobacco products on the Japanese market using data from Medical Data Vision (MDV), a health data provider in Japan.

Post-research in Japan, the researchers suggest that similar research be conducted in other countries, where heated tobacco products are available and utilized. Thus, long-term epidemiological data can be made available.

The data can be an important reference source for countries in the world in responding to the presence of alternative tobacco products, such as heated tobacco products.