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Life Stressors and COPD
Thank you for helping us learn about COPD and lung health! Recently, SPIROMICS began a new phase. This came with new research goals.
These goals mean that we have new questions for you. We recognize that these new questions may be sensitive. We want to briefly explain why we are asking these questions at this time.
Research tells us that everyday life experiences, such as social and economic related stress, can affect our health. Therefore, we are exploring life stressors and how they may impact lung health in SPIROMICS.
You will be asked to share on sensitive topics like where you live, discrimination, financial hardship, loneliness, and stress.
We understand that you may feel uncomfortable answering these new questions. We want to remind you that:
- You don’t have to answer any questions you don’t want to answer.
- All responses you provide are confidential.
- Every participant is asked the same questions.
Most of these questions are not unique to SPIROMICS or SOURCE. Most questions are from standard questionnaires used by other researchers in published studies.
What we learn could help researchers better understand how these factors affect lung health. That could then help scientists develop more effective programs, policies, and services to support lung health, and COPD, and improve outcomes.
Thank you again for your participation and for helping advance knowledge that can improve health for everyone.
What Lives in Your Lungs?
Learning about different microbes that live in your lungs may help researchers find new ways to understand the impact of COPD. That makes what lives in your lungs so important.
As a SPIROMICS or SOURCE participant, you may provide information about your lungs in these ways:
- Nasal swab
- Sputum collection
- Stool collection
- Bronchoscopy
To share more about the importance of what lives in your lungs, we created a new infographic. See the infographic here.
Early Detection of Lung Disease
Some SPIROMICS participants helped with a new discovery.
SPIROMICS researchers tested induced sputum from SPIROMICS. Sputum is mucus found in the lungs. Researchers developed a new tool to analyze and score sputum samples for disease risk.
The sputum samples helped researchers find out if the scoring system worked. They published results about the score. The score could help health care providers understand someone’s lung disease risk. That may help prevent disease. The score can also find problems with mucus and follow the progression of disease.
Word Match-Up
Do you know where these common words from lung health and medicine come from? Match the word in the list from 1 to 8 with its origin in the list from A to H. Answers are on the bottom of the page.
1. Spirometry
2. Prevention
3. Research
4. Pulmonology
5. Symptom
6. Medical
7. Thorax
8. Chronic
A. “to go about seeking” (Old French)
B. “lung” + “speech/talk” (Greek)
C. “time” (Greek)
D. “to breathe” + “measure” (Latin)
E. “anticipate” (Greek)
F. “happening” or “attribute” (Greek)
G. “upper body armor” (Greek)
H. “heal” or “to be mindful of” (Greek)
Acknowledgements
SPIROMICS is supported by NIH/NHLBI contracts (HHSN268200900013C, HHSN268200900014C, HHSN268200900015C, HHSN268200900016C, HHSN268200900017C, HHSN268200900018C, HHSN268200900019C, HHSN268200900020C, 75N92024D00012) and grants (U01 HL137880, U24 HL141762, R01 HL182622, R01 HL144718, and R01HL093081). SOURCE is supported by NIH/NHLBI grant (R01 HL144718). SPIROMICS and SOURCE are supplemented by contributions made through the Foundation for the NIH and the COPD Foundation from Amgen; AstraZeneca/MedImmune; Bayer; Bellerophon Therapeutics; Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Bristol Myers Squibb, Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.; Forest Research Institute, Inc.; Genentech; GlaxoSmithKline; Grifols Therapeutics, Inc.; Ikaria, Inc.; MGC Diagnostics; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Nycomed GmbH; Polarean; ProterixBio; Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Sanofi; Sunovion; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company; Theravance Biopharma; Verona; and Mylan/Viatris. The newsletter was developed by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center, IRB # 20243711 and 20-2236. Lung radiograph image from the CDC PHIL, #16381. Word Match-Up sources: Cleveland Clinic, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and “Pneumonology or Pneumology?: An Etymologic Approach,” CHEST, May 2002.
Answers to Word Match-Up:
1.D. 2.E. 3.A. 4.B. 5.F. 6.H. 7.G. 8.C.