Effect of Obesity on Spirometry tests among Healthy Non-smoker Adults of Bangladesh

Abstract

Obesity is a growing threat to health in countries all over the world because of increasing incidence and its various deleterious effects on different systems of the body including lung function. The present study is planned to assess the effect of obesity on pulmonary function tests in young healthy non-smokerBangladeshi adults as it was not addressed previously.This is a cross sectional comparative study done in Rangpur Medical College Hospital, a northern territory (division) of Bangladesh during the period from August 2013 to March 2014. A total of 80 participants were selected by purposive sampling method and divided into two groups (obese and non-obese as per WPRO criteria for Asian, 2000). Among them 40 male and 40 female and again among the both group 20 were non-obese as control and 20 were obese as case. Both groups were age and physical activity matched. Pulmonary function tests were performed using standard spirometer. The statistical analysis consisting of parametric and non-parametric tests was done depending on the distribution of each variable, considering p < 0.05 to be statistically significant. An informed written consent was taken from each of the participants. Age of the participants was ranging from 18 years to 35 years with mean 26.58 ± 3.54SD.We found no significant differences in FEV1 (p value = 0.272), FVC (p value = 0.253), FEV1/FVC Ratio (p value =0.444), FEF_25-75% (p value = 0.491) and PEFR (p value=.355) between the obese and non-obese subjects.Obesity itselfdoes not have significant effect on lung function test among healthy nonsmoker adults though it causes a decline in lung function parameters among the obese.

Keywords: Obesity; Pulmonary function; Spirometry; Healthy non-smoker adults; Bangladesh