Increased COPD risk for women due to smaller airways

Structural differences in lung airways between men and woman may be the cause of differences in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) prevalence and outcomes between the sexes.

For this study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 10,000 participants enrolled in Genetic Epidemiology of COPD (COPDGene), a prospective multicenter observational cohort study of current and former smokers, as well as never smokers, between the ages of 45 and 80 years, at 21 clinical centers across the United States. The researchers looked at data of never, current and former smokers enrolled in COPDGene from January 2008 to June 2011 and followed up longitudinally until November 2020.

Airway disease on CT was quantified using seven metrics: airway wall thickness, wall area percent, Pi10 (square root of the wall thickness of a hypothetical airway with internal perimeter of 10 mm) for airway wall, lumen (airway passage in which air flows through) diameter, airway volume, total airway count and airway fractal dimension for airway lumen.

Each airway metric was calculated and adjusted for age, height, race, body mass index, pack-years of smoking, current smoking status and total lung capacity.