Age related changes in lung function traits of santal stone mine workers of Birbhum District, West Bengal

Abstract

Lung function measurement is one of the ways of assessing respiratory health status. Stone mine workers are prone to lung problems due to stone dust, are a great concern from public health point of view. The aim of the study was to understand the nature of age related changes in lung function traits of the Santal stone mine workers of Birbhum district, West Bengal. Cross-sectional data on lung function traits including FVC, FEV1.0, FEV1.0/FVC and PEFR have been collected from 328 (149 males, 179 females) healthy adult Santal stone mine workers of Birbhum district, West Bengal. Statistical analysis including descriptive statistics, ANOVA and linear regression analysis were done separately for males and females for each lung function trait. The value of FVC and FEV1.0 reaches its peak within 25 years of age and then gradually decreases in both sexes. Similarly, the FEV1.0/ FVC ratio decrease with the increment of age in both sexes. The peak value of PEFR reaches between 25-34 years of age in male, but in case of female the peak value of PEFR reaches between 35-44 years of age. The ANOVA result showed that significant differences (P≤0.05) exists between/among age cohorts in terms of mean values of all the lung function traits for both males and females. The result of linear regression equation for lung function traits on age were as follows: FVCmale=3.168–0.015×age, FVCfemale=2.214–0.012×age, FEV1.0male=3.119– 0.021×age, FEV1.0female=2.111–0.013×age, FEV1.0/FVCmale=1.004–0.003×age, FEV1.0/FVCfemale=0.953+0.0006×age, PEFRmale=8.649–0.064×age, PEFRfemale=4.690– 0.014×age. Therefore, it seems that lung function traits gradually decline with progression of age and the pattern is similar in both sexes. However, generalization cannot be made out of this small-scale study.

Keywords

• Lung function,age groups

References

1. Babb, T. G., & Rodarte, J. R. (2000). Mechanism of reduced maximal expiratory flow with aging. J Appl Physiol, 89, 505–511.