title: Relationship between ventilatory function and age in master athletes and a sedentary reference population.
abstract: Ageing is accompanied with a decline in respiratory function. It is hypothesised that this may be attenuated by high physical activity levels. We performed spirometry in master athletes (71 women; 84 men; 35-86 years) and sedentary people (39 women; 45 men; 24-82 years), and calculated the predicted lung age (PLA). The negative associations of age with forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1; 34 mL·year(-1)) and other ventilatory parameters were similar in controls and master athletes. FEV1pred was 9 % higher (P < 0.005) and PLA 15 % lower (P = 0.013) in athletes than controls. There were no significant differences between endurance and power athletes and sedentary people in maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressure. Neither age-graded performance nor weekly training hours were significantly related to lung age. Life-long exercise does not appear to attenuate the age-related decrease in ventilatory function. The better respiratory function in master athletes than age-matched sedentary people might be due to self-selection and attrition bias.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health, Manchester Metropolitan University, John Dalton Building; Chester Street, Manchester, M1 5GD, UK. h.degens@mmu.ac.uk
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Degens
authors.forename: Thomas Mark
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Maden-Wilkinson
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ireland
authors.forename: Marko T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Korhonen
authors.forename: Harri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suominen
authors.forename: Ari
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heinonen
authors.forename: Zsolt
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Radak
authors.forename: Jamie S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: McPhee
authors.forename: Jörn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rittweger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D056352:Athletes; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009055:Mouth / Q000502:physiology*; D010366:Peak Expiratory Flow Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D011312:Pressure; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013147:Spirometry / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult