SPIROMETRY IN LIFELONG NONSMOKING, HEALTHY CHINESE WOMEN IN TAIWAN

To establish the spirometric values for normal, healthy Chinese women in Taiwan, the spirometry of 506 life-long non-smoking, healthy Chines e women was examined, including 140 subjects over the age of 60 years. Significant correlations among age, height and forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)), FEV(1)/FVC%, peak exp iratory flow (PEF), V over dot (max75), V over dot (max50), and V over dot (max25) were found. However, there were no significant correlatio ns between age and FEV(1)/FVC%, nor age and V over dot (max25) in the elderly group. FEV(1) (FEV(1)) and FVC (FVC*) were standardized to th e overall mean height for elderly women using Cole's formula. The decl ine in FEV(1) and FVC* with age were observed. The predicted value fo r the average 70-year-old woman with a height of 1.5 m derived from th e present study is compared with those from other surveys of the elder ly. The values from the present study are somewhat higher than the val ues from the Hong Kong study. The authors believe the fact that all of the present subjects were life-long non-smokers might explain the dif ferences.