Gender differences in airway behaviour over the human life span

] Physiologists have in general paid more attention than clinicians to gender diVerences in airway behaviour, even though gender diVerences are an important determinant of the clinical manifestations of airway disease. Similarly, in population based (epidemiological) studies of airway disease, gender is invariably considered a standardising variable rather than a determinant worthy of investigation in its own right. 4 However, there have been some notable historical exceptions.