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Relationship Between Lung Function and Physical Performance in Disabled Older Women

¹ Center on Aging and Health and Division of Geriatric Medicine
² Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
³ Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
⁴ Department of Biostatistics, Bloomberg School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Address correspondence to Crystal Simpson, MD, MHS, The Johns Hopkins University, Center on Aging and Health, 2024 East Monument Street, Suite 2-700, Baltimore, MD 21205. E-mail: cfsimpson{at}jhmi.edu

Background. Understanding the association between lung function and physical performance in disabled older women helps in determining the potential for prevention and treatment strategies to decrease disability. The aim of this study was to determine the association of lung function with objective and self-reported physical performance in community-dwelling disabled older women.

Methods. The Women's Health and Aging Study I consists of 1002 disabled community-dwelling women aged 65. Of these women, 840 underwent spirometry with determination of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV₁) and forced vital capacity (FVC). Cross-sectional analyses included multivariate linear regression to assess the association between FEV₁, FVC, FEV₁/FVC, and the time to walk four meters after adjusting for confounders, including age, race, geriatric depression scale score, body mass index, muscle strength, osteoarthritis, smoking status, and cardiovascular disease. Multiple logistic regression was used to assess the association between FEV₁,FVC, FEV₁/FVC, and self-reported disability in physical performance.

Results. FEV₁ was independently associated with time to walk 4 meters. For every 100 ml decrease in FEV₁, there was a 0.15-second (95% confidence interval: 0.24 to 0.06) increase in time to walk 4 meters. There was an 8% increase in the prevalent odds of self-reported disability in physical performance for every 100 ml decrease in FEV₁. FVC was also associated with physical performance measures. In contrast, FEV₁/FVC was associated with objective but not subjective physical performance.

Conclusion. Decreasing lung function is independently associated with decrements in objective and self-reported physical performance in disabled older women.