Women face increased COPD risk

Women are up to two times more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than men, according to new findings.

Using a new diagnostic method, researchers at Lund University, Sweden, have shown that simply being a woman may be an independent risk factor for developing COPD.

The revelation comes after Johannes Luoto, a researcher at Lund University and a doctor at the geriatric clinic of Skåne University Hospital, followed a group of 2,300 people aged between 65 and 100 to study the development of this disease.

Using the more modern method Lower Limit of Normal (LNN), the study saw clear differences between the genders for the risk of developing COPD.

Luoto said while there was previous evidence that women’s airways could be more sensitive than men’s, older diagnostic methods have not shown a difference between the genders over the risk for contracting COPD.

He said this study, which is published in the European Respiratory Journal, is one of the first that uses more advanced diagnostic criteria, taking into account such as gender and age before spirometry results are interpreted.

“We see a clear increased risk for women contracting COPD compared with the risk for men. And it applies even when other risk factors, such as smoking and age, are taken into consideration,” he said.

“The few studies that have been done use methods to interpret pulmonary function involving spirometry test criteria, which the European and American lung research organisations ERS and ATS now consider outdated and unable to produce reliable results.

“These older methods do not consider the age or sex of the examined subject when interpreting the lung function, even though we know that normal ageing effects lung function and suspect that there may be differences between sexes.”

Luoto called for further studies to compare the different methods of measuring COPD.

Luoto J, Elmståhl S, Wollmer P et al. Incidence of airflow limitation in subjects 65–100 years of age. European Respiratory Journal. December 2015; doi: 10.1183/13993003.00635-2015 [abstract]