Evaluation of the effect of exercise on pulmonary function in young healthy adults

Abstract

Background and Objective: Physical activities like games and sports have been the very basis for promoting physical fitness and health from ancient days. Training increases vital capacity and the maximum volume of air the lungs exchange in one respiratory cycle and aids materially in establishing economy in the oxygen requirement. Hence, the present study was undertaken to compare the pulmonary functions in age and sex matched control and athletic subjects. Materials and Methods: After the institutional ethical clearance and informed consent from all the subjects the spirometric studies done to find out the various pulmonary function parameters such as, Forced vital capacity, Forced expiratory volume in first second of FVC, FEV ₁ %, peak expiratory flow and Maximum voluntary ventilation using standard procedure. Results were expressed as mean S.D. Statistical Analysis was done by students t-test for group wise comparison and P value 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: The age, body weight, Height, body surface area and FVC didnt show statistically significant difference between the nonathletic and athletic subjects. Whereas, FEV _1, FEV ₁ / FVC ratio, PEFR and MVV was found to be significantly higher (P=0.000) in athletics as compared to nonathletics. Conclusion: From this study, we conclude that the normal range of ventilatory function is broad and factors such as athletic conditioning may modify VC, maximum breathing capacity and diffusing capacity. The athletes have larger mean vital capacity and more breathing capacity as well as higher air flow than other subjects.