Publication:

Pulmonary function tests: a study among healthy individuals of different age groups in Akhnoor Tehsil

Background Pulmonary function tests may be affected by many factors like age, gender, race and body surface area of an individual. Lung functions decline throughout adult life, and healthy people are no exception. Aging is a universal progressive decline, but it is not a disease. The present study was done with an aim to establish the age effect on lung function test of healthy non-smoking people belonging to the rural belt of Jammu region.

Methods A prospective study was conducted on 180 patients attending the OPD of department of medicine, sub-district hospital Akhnoor. With age ranging from 11 to 70 years, healthy individuals, non-smokers were selected for the study. Pulmonary tests like forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1st second (FEV1) and peak expiratory flow rates (PEFR) were conducted.

Results Younger population had a high value for FEV1 and PEFR showed a rise among age groups: 11-20, 21-30 and 31-40 years, reaching up to 7.23±1.75 (L/sec), and then declining to reach 3.93±0.98 (L/sec) for the age group: >60 years. Almost all parameters showed a resembling ascends and decline with ageing. Lung function has further variability in older people, depending upon lung capacity at maturation time. This study was quite in line with the most of the research findings in the field, but done under a different social set up.

Conclusions Considerable differences in the respiratory patterns of healthy individuals with ageing suggest that pulmonary function tests have to become a part of routine health examinations in elderly population.