Aim: To explore the relationship between pathophysiological factors and premature lung aging in a cohort of community-dwelling subjects in a health-screening setting.
Methods: 16,107 pharmacy customers in Germany (5954 males, 10,153 females; mean age 59.7 years) participated in a lung function screening project by providing demographic data, including smoking status and known airway conditions and performing spirometry with a Vitalograph, a spirometry screening device. Lung age was calculated from the spirometric findings, and the difference between chronological age and calculated lung age was analyzed in its relationship to the demographic data in general linear models.
Results: In the overall cohort, calculated lung age exceeded chronological age by 10.0 years. Based on the subset of non-smokers not reporting any airway conditions, Vitalograph data in this setting may underestimate FEV1 to some degree, but this apparently had little impact on the detection of association of lung age with pathophysiological factors or the corresponding effect sizes. The most important factors associated with greater lung age based on strength of association were presence of dyspnea, being a smoker, and reporting a history of COPD or asthma. Corresponding effect sizes for the difference between age and lung age were 6.5, 5.7, 13.9, and 8.3 years over the chronological age.
Discussion and conclusion: These data confirm the usefulness of screening devices of lung function testing for epidemiological but potentially also for pharmaco-epidemiological studies.
Keywords: COPD; dyspnea; lung age; pathophysiology; spirometry.