The results of a 10-year study were published this week in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) that point to a distinct “peak” in the female-to-male ratio by age. These results are persistent even after adjustment for obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, race, insurance status, discharge year, and smoking.

Researchers believe the findings could indicate asthma may have distinct biological traits.

“This study reinforces that asthma is a women’s health issue,” said John Oppenheimer, MD, ACAAI Fellow and associate editor of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. “There is a need for more prevention and early intervention to reduce asthma hospitalization in menopausal women and reduce healthcare costs.”

Researchers employed logistic regression modeling to determine if the age in the fifth to sixth decades of life had associations with female sex that remained significant after adjusting for comorbidities and demographic features. The National Impatient Sample databases for 2000-2010 were used to calculate the ratio of female-to-male hospitalization rates for different decades of adult life.