Women Are More Susceptible to Harmful Effects of Smoking

According to the new researches of one of the Norwegian Universities women may be more susceptible to the lung damaging effects of smoking than men.

They analyzed data from a Norwegian case-control study including 954 subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 955 controls. Overall the analysis indicated that women may be more vulnerable to the effects of smoking, which is something previously suspected but not proven.

Examining the total study sample, there were no gender differences with respect to lung diseases severity, but the women were on average younger and had smoked significantly less than men. To explore these differences further, the researchers also analyzed two subgroups of the study sample using two groups of individuals. In both subgroups, women had more severe disease and greater impairment of lung function than men. This means that female smokers in our study experienced reduced lung function at a lower level of smoking exposure and at an earlier age than men.

It has long been suspected that the effect of smoking on lung function may be modified by gender. Interaction analysis confirmed that being female represents a higher risk of reduced lung function, but this gender effect was most pronounced when the level of smoking exposure was low.

According to one of the authors of the study the reason why women may be more susceptible to the effects of cigarette smoke is still unknown, but there are several possible explanations: Women have smaller airways; therefore each cigarette may do more harm. Also, there are gender differences in the metabolism of cigarette smoke. Genes and hormones could also be important.