Ladies are round 50% extra possible than males to develop COPD, the umbrella time period for continual lung circumstances, equivalent to emphysema and bronchitis, even when they’ve by no means smoked or smoked a lot lower than their male counterparts, suggests observational analysis, printed within the open entry journal BMJ Open Respiratory Analysis.
The findings problem the extensively held perception that ladies’s elevated vulnerability to cigarette smoke possible explains this disparity, conclude the researchers.
Smoking is the principal explanation for COPD. However regardless of vital falls in cigarette smoking over the previous 50 years, it stays a number one explanation for loss of life within the U.S., with the prevalence of COPD in girls approaching that of males, say the researchers.
Ladies with COPD are likely to have extra extreme signs, and at a youthful age, than their male counterparts, prompting the suggestion that the reason could lie in a heightened susceptibility to the consequences of cigarette smoke, clarify the researchers.
To make clear the associations between gender, cigarette smoke, and COPD, and to replace earlier estimates of the prevalence and influence of COPD, the researchers drew on a big nationally consultant US survey of adults from the 2020 Nationwide Well being Interview Survey (NHIS).
Respondents (12,638 girls and 10,390 males aged at the least 40) had been requested about their smoking historical past, what tobacco merchandise they used, and whether or not they vaped.
Ladies reported decrease charges of each present and former cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoking, and smokeless tobacco use than males, however related charges of vaping.
The prevalence of COPD was slightly below 8% for girls and 6.5% for males. Ladies with COPD had been extra prone to have by no means smoked cigarettes than males with COPD (26.5% vs. simply over 14%), and fewer possible to make use of different tobacco merchandise apart from e-cigarettes (26.5% vs. 20%).
Ladies additionally reported smoking fewer each day cigarettes than males, averaging round 18 in contrast with round 22, and to have performed so for fewer years. And so they had been much less possible than males to have began smoking earlier than the age of 15: 19% vs. 28%.
But the prevalence of COPD was greater amongst girls who had ever smoked than it was amongst males: 16% vs. 11.5%. And amongst girls who had by no means smoked, the prevalence of COPD was nearly twice as excessive because it was in male non-smokers: simply over 3% in contrast with simply over 1.5%.
In additional evaluation, feminine gender was related to a considerably (47%) greater danger of being identified with COPD after accounting for probably influential elements.
This gender distinction in danger endured, no matter smoking historical past: amongst those that had by no means smoked, girls had been 62% extra prone to be identified with COPD, and amongst those that had ever smoked they had been 43% extra possible to take action.
The researchers acknowledge that their research relied on self-report somewhat than objectively measured knowledge. And so they lacked probably necessary data on hormonal influences, household historical past, or infectious, occupational, and environmental exposures.
However they however counsel, “These findings ought to increase questions on whether or not differing susceptibility to tobacco smoke is the important thing issue driving the elevated COPD prevalence in girls within the U.S..
“If girls had been extra vulnerable to the consequences of smoking, we’d not count on to see a virtually equivalent danger per 10 pack-year publicity, nor would we count on to see a equally elevated relative danger amongst those that had by no means smoked.”
And so they conclude, “Our findings refine prior estimates of COPD amongst these with no smoking historical past and re-emphasize the excessive burden of COPD in girls, underscoring the necessity for considerate efforts to forestall, diagnose, and deal with their illness.”
Extra data:
Gender, tobacco and continual obstructive pulmonary illness: evaluation of the 2020 Nationwide Well being Interview Survey, BMJ Open Respiratory Analysis (2025). DOI: 10.1136/bmjresp-2024-002462
Quotation:
Ladies non-smokers nonetheless round 50% extra possible than males to develop COPD, analysis finds (2025, Might 8)
retrieved 8 Might 2025
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