Relationship between ventilatory function and age in master athletes and a sedentary reference population

• DOI: 10.1007/s11357-012-9409-7
• Publication Date: 2012-04-27T06:28:43Z
• Authors: Hans Degens; Thomas Mark Maden...; Alex Ireland; Marko T. Korhonen; Harri Suominen; Ari Heinonen; Zsolt Radak; Jamie S. McPhee; Jörn Rittweger
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Aging; Peak Expiratory Flow Rate; Athletic Performance; Young Adult; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Reference Values; Forced Expiratory Volume; Pressure; Humans; Mouth pressure; Peak expiratory flow; Weltraumphysiologie; Aged; Retrospective Studies; Aged, 80 and over; Mouth; Physical activity; Physical exercise; ta3141; FEV; Middle Aged; Athletes; Spirometry; Female; Lung age; Follow-Up Studies

Ageing is accompanied with a decline in respiratory function. It is hypothesised that this may be attenuated by high physical activity levels. We performed spirometry in master athletes (71 women; 84 men; 35-86 years) and sedentary people (39 women; 45 men; 24-82 years), and calculated the predicted lung age (PLA). The negative associations of age with forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1; 34 mL·year(-1)) and other ventilatory parameters were similar in controls and master athletes. FEV1pred was 9 % higher (P < 0.005) and PLA 15 % lower (P = 0.013) in athletes than controls. There were no significant differences between endurance and power athletes and sedentary people in maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressure. Neither age-graded performance nor weekly training hours were significantly related to lung age. Life-long exercise does not appear to attenuate the age-related decrease in ventilatory function. The better respiratory function in master athletes than age-matched sedentary people might be due to self-selection and attrition bias.