Credit score: Unsplash/CC0 Public Area
Girls are round 50% extra seemingly than males to develop COPD, the umbrella time period for power lung circumstances, corresponding 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 girls’s elevated vulnerability to cigarette smoke seemingly 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 demise within the U.S., with the prevalence of COPD in girls approaching that of males, say the researchers.
Girls with COPD are inclined to have extra extreme signs, and at a youthful age, than their male counterparts, prompting the suggestion that the reason might lie in a heightened susceptibility to the results 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 impression 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 very least 40) had been requested about their smoking historical past, what tobacco merchandise they used, and whether or not they vaped.
Girls reported decrease charges of each present and former cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoking, and smokeless tobacco use than males, however comparable charges of vaping.
The prevalence of COPD was just below 8% for girls and 6.5% for males. Girls 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 seemingly to make use of different tobacco merchandise aside from e-cigarettes (26.5% vs. 20%).
Girls additionally reported smoking fewer each day cigarettes than males, averaging round 18 in contrast with round 22, and to have completed so for fewer years. They usually had been much less seemingly than males to have began smoking earlier than the age of 15: 19% vs. 28%.
But the prevalence of COPD was larger 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 virtually 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%) larger danger of being identified with COPD after accounting for doubtlessly influential elements.
This gender distinction in danger endured, regardless of 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 seemingly to take action.
The researchers acknowledge that their research relied on self-report reasonably than objectively measured knowledge. They usually lacked doubtlessly vital data on hormonal influences, household historical past, or infectious, occupational, and environmental exposures.
However they nonetheless 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 women were more susceptible to the effects of smoking, we would not expect to see a nearly identical risk per 10 pack-year exposure, nor would we expect to see a similarly increased relative risk among those who had never smoked.”
They usually conclude, “Our findings refine prior estimates of COPD among those without a smoking history and re-emphasize the high burden of COPD in women, underscoring the need for thoughtful efforts to prevent, diagnose, and treat their disease.”
Extra data:
Gender, tobacco and power obstructive pulmonary illness: evaluation of the 2020 Nationwide Well being Interview Survey, BMJ Open Respiratory Analysis (2025). DOI: 10.1136/bmjresp-2024-002462
Supplied by
British Medical Journal
Quotation:
Girls non-smokers nonetheless round 50% extra seemingly than males to develop COPD, analysis finds (2025, Could 8)
retrieved 8 Could 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2025-05-women-smokers-men-copd.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Other than any truthful dealing for the aim of personal research or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is offered for data functions solely.
