Sator L, et al. - Among 16,177 participants from the BOLD Study (Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease), researchers assessed the overdiagnosis and the prevalence of spirometrically defined false positive COPDand how it relates to overtreatment across 23 population samples in 20 countries. Report of a doctor’s diagnosis of COPD in the presence of unobstructed postbronchodilator spirometry (FEV₁/FVC > lower limit of normal) was taken as a false positive diagnosis of COPD. They used the fixed ratio criterion (FEV₁/FVC < 0.7) to carry out other analyses. A total of 569 subjects (61.9%) had unobstructed postbronchodilator spirometry. When the fixed ratio criterion (55.3%) was used, a similar rate of overdiagnosis was observed. Women more commonly experienced overdiagnosis; factors related to overdiagnosis in multivariate analysis were higher education; former and current smoking; the presence of wheeze, cough, and phlegm; and concomitant medical diagnosis of asthma or heart disease. Overall, false positive COPD was frequently reported, which could open nonobstructed patients up to adverse impacts of respiratory medication.