Introduction:

the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a problem in the Territorial Hospital “Julio Miguel Aristegui Villamil” in Cardenas, province of Matanzas. It is a cause of frequent admission in its units of care to seriously ill patients, having sometimes an unfavorable development. Tobacco smoking, environmental contamination and other factors are the elements making this disease to boost with longest staying and increased mortality.

Objective:

to determine the COPD’s risk factors in in-patients of units of care to seriously ill patients.

Materials and methods:

a retrospective, longitudinal, descriptive study was carried out to describe this disease in the in-patients in the units of care to seriously ill patients in the hospital of Cardenas during the period from January 2015 to December 2016. The sample coincides with universe. The studied variables were sex, age, personal pathological antecedents. A card for collecting the information was used as database.

Results:

the 65-70-4 years-old age group predominated (43.8 %). the male sex was the most represented one; the most significant risk factors were tobacco smoking (86 %) and cardiovascular diseases (69.8 %).

Conclusions:

the COPD has began to worry the international medical community in the last decade due to its direct relation to smoking and given the tendency of this habit to increase.

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