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Global estimates suggest that Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is emerging as a leading cause of death in developing countries but there are few spirometry-based general population data on its prevalence and risk factors in sub-Saharan Africa. We used the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) protocol to select a representative sample of adults aged 40 years and above in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. All the participants underwent spirometry and provided information on smoking history, biomass and occupational exposures as well as diagnosed respiratory diseases and symptoms. Chronic Airflow Obstruction (CAO) was defined as the ratio of post-bronchodilator (BD) one second Forced Expiratory Volume (FEV₁) to Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) below the lower limit of normal (LLN) of the population distribution for FEV₁/FVC.

The overall prevalence of obstruction (post-BD FEV₁/FVC < LLN) was 7.7% (2 …