Deaths related to COPD have declined nearly six times more for men than for women over the past 15 years, according to new data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

From 2000 through 2014, the age-adjusted rate for COPD-related deaths decreased 22.5% for men (from 183.0 per 100,000 population in 2000 to 141.9 in 2014). In contrast, the rate declined only 3.8% for women, from 104.9 per 100,000 in 2000 to 100.9 in 2014.

The declines are consistent with declines in the prevalence of smoking for men and women in the United States, Hanyu Ni, PhD, and Jianquan Xu, MD, of the NCHS Division of Vital Statistics, report in a data brief released September 8.

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