Table 1

Total number of cases and incidences of hospitalisations due to AECOPD for residents of Graubünden (GR) and the rest of Switzerland (CH) without Ticino between March 2003 and February 2010; inhabitants corresponding to the weighted mean between two consecutive years

	AECOPD
	CH without GR and TI			GR
Time period	Cases	Inhabitants	Incidence (/100 000)	Cases	Inhabitants	Incidence (/100 000)
March 2003–February 2004	4437	6.867.802	65	184	187.088	98
March 2004–February 2005	4636	6.914.307	67	173	187.811	92
March 2005–February 2006	4841	6.956.869	70	193	187.822	103
March 2006–February 2007	5401	7.009.332	77	218	188.060	116
March 2007–February 2008	5350	7.093.237	75	178	189.045	94
March 2008–February 2009	5077	7.191.922	71	172	190.693	90
March 2009–February 2010	4435	7.272.481	61	127	191.988	66
IRR (before vs after ban)	0.93 (0.91 to 0.95)			0.78 (0.68 to 0.88)
p	<0.001			<0.001
p CH versus GR	0.008

The time periods after introduction of the ban are highlighted in bold.
AECOPD, acute exacerbated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; IRR, incidence rate ratio.