Never-smoker African–American women suffer more from COPD compared with never-smoker Caucasian women

摘要

The population of African–American women in western Europe is substantial and growing. We wish to point out a few puzzling and paradoxical findings about the epidemiology of COPD in this subpopulation in the USA that may have relevance for the European situation. GUT-GOBERT et al. [1] suggest that, between 1990 and 2010, COPD became the third leading cause of death in the USA. The COPD mortality rate declined among men in the USA between 1999 (57.0 per 100 000) and 2006 (46.4 per 100000), whereas there was no significant change in mortality rates for women (35.3 per 100 000 in 1999 and 34.2 per 100 000 in 2006). It is notable that the COPD mortality rates are lower in African–American than Caucasian women; however, asthma prevalence and mortality rates are higher in African–American women than Caucasian women [2].