title: Women and Lung Disease. Sex Differences and Global Health Disparities.
abstract: There is growing evidence that a number of pulmonary diseases affect women differently and with a greater degree of severity than men. The causes for such sex disparity is the focus of this Blue Conference Perspective review, which explores basic cellular and molecular mechanisms, life stages, and clinical outcomes based on environmental, sociocultural, occupational, and infectious scenarios, as well as medical health beliefs. Owing to the breadth of issues related to women and lung disease, we present examples of both basic and clinical concepts that may be the cause for pulmonary disease disparity in women. These examples include those diseases that predominantly affect women, as well as the rising incidence among women for diseases traditionally occurring in men, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Sociocultural implications of pulmonary disease attributable to biomass burning and infectious diseases among women in low- to middle-income countries are reviewed, as are disparities in respiratory health among sexual minority women in high-income countries. The implications of the use of complementary and alternative medicine by women to influence respiratory disease are examined, and future directions for research on women and respiratory health are provided.
authors.affiliation: 1 University of California, Davis, Davis, California.
authors.forename: Kent E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Pinkerton
authors.affiliation: 2 Public Advisory Roundtable of the American Thoracic Society, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harbaugh
authors.affiliation: 3 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
authors.forename: MeiLan K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: 4 University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas.
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jourdan Le Saux
authors.affiliation: 1 University of California, Davis, Davis, California.
authors.forename: Laura S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Van Winkle
authors.affiliation: 5 Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: 6 University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Rose J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Kosgei
authors.affiliation: 7 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
authors.forename: E Jane
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.affiliation: 8 Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; and the.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sitkin
authors.affiliation: 1 University of California, Davis, Davis, California.
authors.forename: Suzette M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Smiley-Jewell
authors.affiliation: 9 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: George
mesh_terms: D000529:Complementary Therapies; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D019529:Sexuality; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016387:Women's Health
keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; complementary and alternative medicine; health disparity; sexual minority women