STUDY ON PULMONARY FUNCTION IN ADULTS, ESPECIALLY ELDERLY POPULATION, ON THE BASIS OF MASS HEALTH EXAMINATION
I. MEASUREMENTS WITH THE VITALOR
1975 Volume 25 Issue 4 Pages 225-234
Details
1975 Volume 25 Issue 4 Pages 225-234
Mass health examination has been performed on adult rural inhabitants in local communities in Gunma prefecture. Below are given findings on elevation of blood pressure and fall of pulmonary function with advancing age and relation between these two, which were obtained from results of examination performed since 1969 with 2, 111 males and 2, 789 females, aged 30-79.
1) After the middle-age, forced vital capacity (FVC) and one second forced expiratory volume (FEV1.0) decreased continusly and lineally.
2) Systolic blood pressure (S-BP), continuously rose as late as 70 years of age, where as diastolic blood pressure (D-BP), after attaining the peak at 60 years for the males and 55 years for females, tended to fall.
3) The age had significant moderate correlation with FVC and FEV1.0. Also S-BP had significant moderate correlation with these tow, but D-BP was correlated with them at lower degree, though significant.
4) As for change with age in coefficient of variation, FVC and FEV1.0 increased with ageing, and the findings may suggested that individual variation between the old-aged might be greater. Such a tendency was not conspicuous with blood pressure, either systolic or diastolic.
5) There was significant relation between blood pressure and pulmonary function in the thirties and forties. Such relation was not revealed in the later age.
6) This difference by age group may be produced partly because, in younger age, the hypertensive would be eliminated but not so much those with pulmonary dysfunction. As the result, The relation between the values of the two items would become inconspicuous with ageing.
7) There was not any general relation between ECG abnormalcy and low FVC. But those with deviation in ST and T tended to show low FVC. But because of a small number of cases, it is not certain whether this can be regarded as characteristic of ischemic heart diseases.
8) From the above findings it is difficult to find a statistically significant relation for the elderly between FVC and FEV1.0 on one hand and results of cardio-vascular examination on the other. This means that it is impossible to estimate one side from the other, and that it has significance to examine the pulmonary function independently from the other.
