Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease

Last updated November 17, 2025

The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) is a non-profit organization started by the World Health Organization and the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in 1997 to improve care for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).^[1]^[2] They have organized the annual awareness day, World COPD Day, every November since 2002.^[3]

This organization issues recommendations for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and related medical conditions. GOLD issued its first formal recommendations in 2001.^[2] Their approach departed from previous medical guidelines in two significant respects:

Previous recommendations were usually written by groups of experts, usually from a single medical specialty, partly on the basis of their own experiences.^[2] They were the first to evaluate the levels of evidence that supported their recommendations.^[2] GOLD's approach to evidence-based medicine was more rigorous than the previous COPD recommendations, but other organizations, including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, use more complex systems.^[2]
GOLD's recommendations are also updated more frequently than was typical in the past.^[2] This allows the recommendations to include newer evidence.

Adoption

The GOLD grading system for classifying the severity of COPD is widely used worldwide.^[4]

References

↑ Rodriguez-Roisin, Roberto (March 2019). Twenty years of GOLD (1997-2017). The origins (PDF) (Report).
1 2 3 4 5 6 Calverley, Peter M. A.; Macnee, William (2012-12-11). "Guidlines for COPD Management". Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (2 ed.). CRC Press. pp. 507–508. ISBN 978-1-4441-1393-8.
↑ Raja, Lakshay (19 November 2020). "World COPD Day 2020: History, significance and theme for this year". Jagran English. Jagran New Media.
↑ Al-Ruzzeh, Sharif; Kurup, Viji (2012-03-02). Marschall, Katherine (ed.). Stoelting's Anesthesia and Co-Existing Disease E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 189. ISBN 978-1-4557-3812-0.

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[1] Rodriguez-Roisin, Roberto (March 2019). Twenty years of GOLD (1997-2017). The origins (PDF) (Report).

[:0-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Calverley, Peter M. A.; Macnee, William (2012-12-11). "Guidlines for COPD Management". Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (2 ed.). CRC Press. pp. 507–508. ISBN 978-1-4441-1393-8.

[3] Raja, Lakshay (19 November 2020). "World COPD Day 2020: History, significance and theme for this year". Jagran English. Jagran New Media.

[4] Al-Ruzzeh, Sharif; Kurup, Viji (2012-03-02). Marschall, Katherine (ed.). Stoelting's Anesthesia and Co-Existing Disease E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 189. ISBN 978-1-4557-3812-0.

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