Relationship between body composition and lung function in elderly men and women.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between body composition parameters and lung functions including vital capacity (VC), forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)), FEV(1):VC ratio, and FEV(1):FVC ratio in elderly men and women.


METHODS
The study was a cross-sectional evaluation of 99 healthy men and women (aged 60-88 years). Anthropometric and body composition parameters (including fat mass [FM], fat-free mass [FFM] and percentage body fat [%BF]) were evaluated using the skinfold method, and lung function was examined using spirometry.


RESULTS
Data analysis showed %BF, body FM and body mass index (BMI) of women to be significantly higher than men. Also, their body FFM was significantly less than men (P<0.05). Lung volume (P<0.01) and lung capacity values (P<0.05) (VC, FVC, FEV(1), FEV(1):VC, FEV(1):FVC) of women were significantly less than men. There was a positive significant relationship between the FFM versus FVC and FEV(1) values of women and men. A negative significant relationship was demonstrated between body FM, BMI and FVC of all subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
This investigation showed that women aged between 60 and 88 years had a lower lung capacity compared to men of the same age. Older women were found to have a higher body fat ratio than men, and it was found that increasing %BF and BMI had a negative effect on lung functions in both sexes.
Karacan
Selma
S
School of Physical Education and Sport, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey.
Güzel
Nevin Atalay
NA
Colakoglu
Filiz
F
Baltaci
Gul
G
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D050218:Body Fat Distribution; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014797:Vital Capacity