[Bronchitis--a social medical study (author's transl)].

1. Every third or fourth patient visiting an outpatients department for pulmonary diseases was found to have chronic bronchitis. 2. Twice as many manual workers as other workers suffer from chronic bronchitis. This difference seems to be related to the dusty conditions to which manual workers are exposed. Manual workers in clean conditions have the same proportion of chronic bronchitis as non manual workers. 3. Up to the age of sixty there is no difference in the incidence of chronic bronchitis in male and female patients. Above the age of sixty the incidence in males exceeds than in females. 4. No difference between male and female patients up to the age of sixty years is also in regard of the combination of chronic bronchitis and pulmonary emphysema.