Obesity and Pulmonary Functions in Young Non Smoker Male of Shah Alam, Malaysia

The prevalence of overweight and obesity among Malaysian adults has increased due to their sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy food habits. Other than cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, obesity is also associated with respiratory impairments. Studies on pulmonary function in relation to obesity are very few in Malaysia.

To evaluate the effect of obesity on dynamic lung function parameters and to identify the association of both relative and abdominal obesity indicators with dynamic pulmonary function measurements among young male non smoker healthy university students of shah alam, Malaysia.

A Cross-sectional comparative study was conducted in a total of 100 (50 obese and 50 non obese control) adult non-smoker healthy male students aged 18–25 years. Forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV₁), FEv₁ as a percentage of FvC (FEv₁/FvC%), maximum mid expiratory flow rate (FEF_25–75%) and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) were measured using a computerized spirometer. Body weight, height, waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) were measured.

All dynamic pulmonary function measurements were significantly lower in obese subjects than non obese except FVC. Body weight, waist circumference (WC) and waist hip ratio (WHR) exhibited highly significant (P<0.001) inverse correlation with all pulmonary function measurements except FEF_25–75%. However, BMI, body height had no significant correlation with any spirometric variables.

Obesity has adverse effect on dynamic lung function parameters and central obesity has more impact on impairment of pulmonary functions than overall relative obesity.