About the Authors

Aamir Khakwani

mcxak14@nottingham.ac.uk

Affiliation Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Anna L. Rich

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nottingham University Hospital, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Laila J. Tata

Affiliation Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Helen A. Powell

Affiliations Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom, Nottingham Respiratory Research Unit, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Rosamund A. Stanley

Affiliation Health and Social Care Information Centre, Leeds, United Kingdom

David R. Baldwin

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nottingham University Hospital, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Richard B. Hubbard

Affiliations Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom, Nottingham Respiratory Research Unit, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

I have read the journal’s policy and have the following conflicts: RBH has a grant provided by the British Lung Foundation chair of respiratory epidemiology and had a minor consultancy role (as an epidemiologist) with the GSK concerning people with lung fibrosis where he was paid £350. The fee was for advice in designing a biomarker cohort study for people wth idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He is also a co-applicant on a grant for £500,000 from GSK to look at biomarkers for lung fibrosis. AK is also doing his PhD from the University of Nottingham on a studentship provided by the British Lung Foundation. LJT has conducted the statistical analysis for the National Lung Cancer Audit annual reports for the past 4 years, which was funded by the Health and Social care Information Centre; LJT has not received any personal earnings from the HSCIC for this work. RAS was previously employed by the HSCIC as the project manager for the NLCA. The others have declared that no competing interest exists. This does not alter our adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RBH ALR RAS AK. Analyzed the data: RBH ALR LJT. Wrote the paper: AK. Revising the paper: HAP LJT DRB ALR RAS RBH. Acquired the data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) and all analysis: AK.