International Women’s Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme, Accelerate Action, emphasizes the urgency of addressing systemic barriers, challenging biases, and fast-tracking progress towards gender equality. With this vision in mind, here are three things that we’d like you to know about lung health (and the women who are transforming it!)
1. A lot of what we all know—or think we know about lung health—is built on historic science that excluded
The Association of American Medical Colleges notes that “Historical bias, policies designed to shield unborn children from exposure to drugs and treatments, and ongoing challenges to recruiting and retaining women in clinical trials and medical research limit the understanding of how women, and particularly women of color, experience disease and how best to treat them for many conditions.”
The good news: When we know better, we do better. Today, many institutions and funding sources specifically evaluate research projects for how they integrate a Health Equity (HE) lens into the fabric of their investigation Women and gender-diverse people deserve representation in all areas of the lab!
2. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the women’s health equity issue nobody’s talking about.
In 2009, COPD overtook breast cancer as a cause of death for Canadian women.ᶦ Meanwhile, studies suggest that women may be less likely to receive lung function tests (spirometry), which is essential for COPD diagnosis and management.ᶦᶦ Once they are diagnosed, their quality of life is more likely to be impaired, too.ᶦᶦᶦ
The good news: Our community is taking inspiration from Canada’s unstoppable breast cancer awareness and advocacy movement. The first step? Breaking the stigma by talking openly about it, and spreading awareness that shortness of breath, like a lump, is always worth investigating.
3. The Lung Health Foundation has three new leaders you need to meet.
Gayatri Aravind, Samantha Ball, and Jessica Moffatt exemplify the power of women shaping the future of healthcare. With expertise spanning research, policy, and health systems, these leaders are driving impactful initiatives to address lung health issues that affect millions of Canadians.
The really, really good news? Take a deep breath—we’re just getting started.
ᶦ Statistics Canada. Leading causes of death, total population, by age group https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1310039401
ᶦᶦ Han MK, Postma D, Mannino DM, et al. Gender and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 2007;176(12):1179-1184.
ᶦᶦᶦ Mathers CD, Loncar D. Projections of Global Mortality and Burden of Disease from 2002 to 2030. PLoS Medicine. 2006;3(11):e442