Background: Sex differences in symptoms exist in patients with COPD. Our aim is to measure the differences between men and women with COPD, focusing on risk factors, symptoms, quality of life and drug prescriptions.
Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, patients with COPD were collected in China; demographic characteristics, smoking history, occupational exposure, biomass exposure, lung function, dyspnea, quality of life, and prescriptions for inhaled medications were collected. The nearest neighbor algorithm was used to match female and male patients (ratio 2:1) on age, body mass index, and lung function.
Results: Compared with 1462 men, the 731 women generally had lower educational levels and were married less (both p < 0.001). A total of 576 (90.0%) women did not smoke cigarettes. More men were exposed to occupational dust (539 (36.9%) vs. 84 (11.5%), p = 0.013), while more women were exposed to biomass smoke (330 (45.1%) vs. 392 (26.8%), p = 0.004). Except for phlegm and chest tightness, women had more complaints than men for cough, breathlessness, activities, confidence, sleep and energy (p < 0.05). In addition, more women were prescribed triple therapy than men (236 (36.3%) vs. 388 (31.0%), p = 0.020).
Conclusions: There are obvious discrepancies in the quality of life and use of inhaled medications between male and female patients with COPD.
Keywords: COPD; prescription; sex difference; symptom.