About the Authors

Kathrin Kahnert

kathrin.kahnert@med.uni-muenchen.de

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine V, University of Munich, Comprehensive Pneumology Center, Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Munich, Germany

Tanja Lucke

Affiliation Institute and Outpatient Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany

Rudolf M. Huber

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine V, University of Munich, Comprehensive Pneumology Center, Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Munich, Germany

Jürgen Behr

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine V, University of Munich, Comprehensive Pneumology Center, Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Munich, Germany

Frank Biertz

Affiliation Institute for Biostatistics, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Anja Vogt

Affiliation Stoffwechselambulanz, Klinik und Poliklinik der Universität München, Munich, Germany

Henrik Watz

Affiliation Pulmonary Research Institute at LungenClinic Grosshansdorf, Airway Research Center North, Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Grosshansdorf, Germany

Peter Alter

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University Medical Center Giessen and Marburg, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany, Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Marburg, Germany

Sebastian Fähndrich

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine V – Pulmonology, Allergology, Respiratory Intensive Care Medicine, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg, Germany

Robert Bals

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine V – Pulmonology, Allergology, Respiratory Intensive Care Medicine, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg, Germany

Rolf Holle

Affiliation Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management, Helmholtz Zentrum München (GmbH) - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Comprehensive Pneumology Center Munich (CPC-M), Neuherberg, Germany

Stefan Karrasch

Affiliations Institute and Outpatient Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany, Institute of Epidemiology I, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany

Sandra Söhler

Affiliation ASCONET Study Coordination Office, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

Margarethe Wacker

Affiliation Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management, Helmholtz Zentrum München (GmbH) - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Comprehensive Pneumology Center Munich (CPC-M), Neuherberg, Germany

Joachim H. Ficker

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine, Allergology and Sleep Medicine, General Hospital Nuernberg, Paracelsus Medical University, Nuernberg, Germany

Klaus G. Parhofer

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine IV, University of Munich, Munich, Germany

Claus Vogelmeier

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University Medical Center Giessen and Marburg, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany, Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Marburg, Germany

Rudolf A. Jörres

Affiliation Institute and Outpatient Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany

on behalf of the COSYCONET consortium

Membership of the COSYCONET consortium is provided in the Acknowledgments.

Competing Interests

Dr. Bals reports grants from Grifols, personal fees from GSK, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work; Dr. Ficker reports grants from Cosyconet study supported by Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung BMBF, during the conduct of the study; personal fees from Boehringer, grants, personal fees and non-financial support from CSL-Behring, personal fees from GSK, personal fees from AstraZeneca, personal fees from Roche, personal fees and non-financial support from Novartis, from null, outside the submitted work; Dr. Fähndrich reports grants from CSL Behring, grants from Grifols, grants from AstraZeneca, outside the submitted work; Dr. Holle reports grants from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant number 01GI0882), during the conduct of the study; Dr. Karrasch reports grants from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with grant number 01GI0882, during the conduct of the study; Dr. Wacker reports grants from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant number 01GI0882), during the conduct of the study;Dr. Vogelmeier reports personal fees from Almirall, personal fees from AstraZeneca, personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim, personal fees from Chiesi, grants and personal fees from GlaxoSmithKline, grants and personal fees from Grifols, personal fees from Mundipharma, personal fees from Novartis, personal fees from Takeda, personal fees from Cipla, personal fees from Berlin Chemie/Menarini, outside the submitted work; Dr. Jörres reports grants from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant number 01GI0882), during the conduct of the study, as well as Grants from MundiPharma, GSK and Lufthansa that are not related to the present work. The rest of the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: KK RAJ TL RMH JB FB AV HW SF RB CV PA RH. Data curation: KK RAJ TL SS FB. Formal analysis: KK RAJ PA. Investigation: KK RAJ HW RB CV. Methodology: KK RAJ PA. Project administration: KK RAJ. Supervision: RAJ CV. Validation: FB RH MW. Visualization: KK RAJ. Writing – original draft: KK RAJ. Writing – review & editing: TL RMH JB AV HW PA SF RH SK SS MW JHF KGP CV FB.