Prevention
- Strategies need to be actively employed to prevent people from starting to smoke or to help smokers to quit.
Treatment
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Higher standards of COPD care need to be established, as do studies on the effectiveness of current prevention, education, medication and rehabilitation.
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Pulmonary rehabilitation has been shown to be effective and needs to become widely available.
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Caregivers and patients need to be guided in the most efficient and effective ways to manage COPD.
Research
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Further studies on the most effective smoking cessation intervention and techniques are required.
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Further research on the influence of genetic factors, exacerbations, natural history, deaths and cost is required to combat the increasing health and economic burden of COPD.
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Long-term epidemiological studies of the frequency of, and mortality from, COPD are needed in all European countries.