Tobacco use, women, gender, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: are the connections being adequately made?

This article reflects on a multidisciplinary workshop addressing the evidence pertaining to tobacco use, sex, gender, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In preparation, a literature review was conducted that examined the academic and gray literature on tobacco, COPD, and gender and women, with a view to assessing if and how these literatures spoke to each other. These materials were discussed in a sponsored workshop (Toward a Research Agenda on Gender and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) held in Vancouver, Canada, in 2007, engaging a variety of scientists and stakeholders in assessing the issues and emergent questions. The goal of this workshop was to foster the advancement of a research agenda that more tightly links tobacco, COPD, and lung health and that reflects and investigates sex and gender issues, especially in reference to the growing rates of COPD among women. A research agenda for consideration by researchers in the fields of women's health, medicine, tobacco use, COPD, and related fields is offered.