Respiratory system diseases represent a significant global health burden, increasingly threatening public health. The co-occurrence of multiple respiratory diseases, such as the frequent overlap of COPD with conditions like asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS), COPD-lung cancer, and sleep apnea, exacerbates patients’ quality of life and survival prospects. Chronic cough often presents concurrently with asthma, COPD, and IPF. Identifying potential risk factors for chronic respiratory diseases and their comorbidities could aid in preventing disease progression and adverse outcomes. Research has shown that environmental exposure is a primary risk factor for pulmonary diseases like COPD, asthma, and chronic cough, and is linked to increased incidence and mortality rates. Furthermore, the occurrence of common chronic respiratory diseases is influenced by a combination of genetic background, environment, lifestyle, and dietary habits.
Currently, large-scale data on the incidence and prognosis of respiratory comorbidities like COPD, asthma, and chronic cough are unclear; international data on risk factors for secondary respiratory comorbidities are limited, hindering our understanding of their potential mechanisms, high-risk populations, and preventive and therapeutic strategies. This study aims to evaluate the association between various factors-genetic background, environment, lifestyle, and dietary habits-and chronic respiratory diseases and their comorbidities, providing cumulative evidence for causal relationships.
This research will employ rigorous analytical methods, including Cox proportional hazards models and bivariate surface models, to identify biological, anthropometric, behavioral, and lifestyle factors related to respiratory diseases and their comorbidities. Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and Phenome-Wide Association Studies (PheWAS) will characterize genetic variants/mutations statistically associated with specific respiratory diseases and comorbidities and explore phenotypes potentially linked to given genetic variants.
The anticipated outcome of this research project is to identify factors associated with respiratory diseases and their comorbidities. Our findings could help identify key elements for preventing and reducing chronic respiratory diseases and contribute to the development of interventions and prognostic measures for patients with respiratory diseases, thus promoting health equity and alleviating the burden of chronic respiratory diseases.