Decrease in Ventilatory Capacity between Ages of 50 and 54 in Representative Sample of Swedish Men

Abstract

Summary: The ventilatory capacity, including flowvolume curves of 313 men, all 50 years old, was examined in 1963 and 1967. The group as a whole, which included persons with chronic bronchitis, with ".other respiratory symptoms," and without respiratory symptoms, showed the same absolute decrease in ventilatory capacity.Vital capacity, forced expiratory volume, and maximum expiratory flow all dropped more for the smokers than for either the non-smokers or the ex-smokers. In those who had stopped smoking for four years or less, however, ventilatory capacity did not decline significantly less than in those who continued to smoke. Tables V and VI for references). Factors such as the nature of the ambient air and smoking habits also affect the ventilatory capacity. A better way of studying the influence of different factors is to follow pulmonary function from year to year in the same people (Higgins and Oldham, 1962 ;Fletcher, 1968 ;Higgins et al., 1968). IntroductionThe present investigation had three aims: (1) to record the changes in the ventilatory capacity during a four-year period in a randomly selected sample of men born in the same year; (2) to determine whether there was any difference in the ventilatory capacity between groups which differed as regards respiratory symptoms and smoking habits; and (3) to analyse the drop with age in comparison with a prediction from regression equations.The results of a cross-sectional study in 1963, using the same sample of men, on the connexion between smoking and ventilatory capacity have been published, as have the results from a control group without any respiratory symptoms (Wilhelmsen and Tibblin, 1966;Wilhelmsen, 1968).

Cigarette Smoking and Changes in Respiratory Findings

“…Wilhelmsen et al examined 313 Swedish men at 50 and again at 54 years of age. 7 The rate of decline in FEV was greatest among heavy smokers, intermediate among light smokers, and least among nonsmokers. The decline among the few persons who quit smoking in the interval was similar to that for nonsmokers.…”

Effects of smoking and changes in smoking habits on the decline of FEV1

“…Cigarette smoking is the major factor accelerating agerelated decline of forced expiratory volume in the first second of expiration (FEY J Some longitudinal studies have failed to demonstrate beneficial effects of smoking cessation on the decline of FEY 1 [1,2], but it is now generally accepted that quitting of smoking, within a few years results in normalization of the FEV 1 decline towards the values of never -smokers [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Although many longitudinal studies have comprised a large number of subjects, the numbers of individuals who have stopped smoking have been too small to demonstrate whether quitting has a similar effect on the loss of lung function in heavy smokers as in light smokers.…”

State of the Art. A Structural and Functional Assessment of the Lung via Multidetector-Row Computed Tomography: Phenotyping Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

“…This has confounded research related to the effects of smoking cessation on lung health. There are mixed results as to whether or not smoking cessation halts the progression of emphysematous lung disease (20,(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). Work by Bosse and colleagues (28) attempted to take into account the aging process and suggested that the disease process is slowed if one stops smoking.…”