Gender and mortality following hospitalisation for COPD

We read with interest the article by Gonzalez et al 1 on gender differences in survival following hospitalisation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients in a large cohort of a Canadian population. There are limited data on gender differences and mortality in COPD. Despite women having worse dyspnoea and health status, they appear to have a lower mortality rate than men.2 The study conducted by Gonzalez and coworkers demonstrated an interesting finding of a significantly better mean survival and time to rehospitalisation in female patients. We conducted a study of …