Senthilselvan A, et al. - Researchers used data from the first three cycles of the Canadian Health Measures Survey in order to define asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap syndrome [ACOS] in the Canadian population in this cross-sectional analysis. Participants were 9,059 people aged 30 years and above. They divided participants into control, ACOS, COPD only and asthma only groups on the basis of self-report. The prevalence of ACOS group was estimated to be 1.59%, of COPD and asthma groups were 2.21% and 6.65%, respectively. The ACOS group exhibited the highest proportion of wheeze whereas the COPD group had the highest prevalence of shortness of breath. The ACOS group vs COPD, asthma and control groups had a greater prevalence of heart disease, cancer, arthritis and liver disease. Overall, ACOS had similar characteristics in the Canadian population vs in the developed countries.