Abstract
Objective: To assess the usefulness of the new criteria in the revised Guidelines for Evaluation of Health Check-up Results and Follow-up Guidance in Ningen Dock for evaluating pulmonary function test results through comparing evaluations for respiratory diseases with those based on the old criteria, for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in particular.
Methods: The percentage predicted forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1% predicted), percent vital capacity, and FEV1% were calculated from accumulated data for 119,235 subjects (79,235 men [mean age, 50.4±10.7 years] and 40,000 women [mean age, 50.0±11.0 years]) who visited 7 ningen dock facilities belonging to the Japan Society of Ningen Dock according to both the new and old criteria, and the evaluations with respect to COPD were compared.
Results: According to the new criteria, the percentage of subjects in class D (consultation recommended) was 13.2% (men14.4%, women 10.7%), higher than the 0.9% (men 1.1%, women 0.5%) for the old criteria. When the data were classified according to presence or absence of smoking history and history of respiratory diseases, the highest percentages of subjects changing from Class C (active support) to class D were those with a history of respiratory diseases and a smoking habit, for both men (28.7%) and women (19.1%).
Conclusions: The introduction of the new criteria has facilitated earlier detection of COPD. This indicates that the use of the "FEV1% predicted" criterion set forth in the new guidelines is indispensable to the evaluation of pulmonary function test results at ningen dock facilities.
