Background: COPD prevalence was reported high in rural areas which most of cases were under-reported. Cigarette was known as the main cause of lung dysfunction and in others population were caused by air pollution and chemicals hazard exposure. Pagelaran District is one of the closest areas to the Labuan Coal-fired power plants which uses coal as electricity-producing fuel. Fly ash as its residues are potential air pollutants which respirable and toxic to human lungs. This research aimed to provide the true prevalence of lung dysfunction as an assessment of Pagelaran District and the causal factors in its region.

Method: A cross sectional study was done using purposive sampling with 106 subjects living in the District of Pagelaran around the Labuan Coal-fired power plants. Data were collected February-September 2019 using semi-structured questionnaire about demographic variables and COPD Assessment Test (CAT). A backward methods of logistic regression was performed to analyzed risk factors of lung dysfunction.

Results: The results showed 17.81% of 146 subjects were suffered moderate-severe lung dysfunction. The average of CAT Score was 6.39. Logistic regression showed that gender (p value = 0.026; POR = 0.31; 95% CI 0.11-0.87), history of lung infection (p value = 0.002; POR = 5.74; 95% CI 2.18-32.09), and income (p value = 0.026; POR = 0.31; 95% CI 0.11-0.87) were contributed to lung dysfunction.

Conclusion: Risk factors of lung dysfunction of population around the Labuan Coal-fired power plants were gender, history of lung infection, and income.

Keywords: CAT, Coal-fired power plants, Lung dysfunction