title: Relationship between body composition and lung function in elderly men and women.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Physical Education and Sport, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Selma
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karacan
authors.forename: Nevin Atalay
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Güzel
authors.forename: Filiz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Colakoglu
authors.forename: Gul
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baltaci
mesh_terms: 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