Age related changes in lung function traits of santal stone mine workers of Birbhum District, West Bengal

Lung function measurement is one of the ways of assessing respiratory health status. Stonemine workers are prone to lung problems due to stone dust, are a great concern from publichealth point of view. The aim of the study was to understand the nature of age relatedchanges in lung function traits of the Santal stone mine workers of Birbhum district, WestBengal. Cross-sectional data on lung function traits including FVC, FEV1.0, FEV1.0/FVC andPEFR have been collected from 328 (149 males, 179 females) healthy adult Santal stonemine workers of Birbhum district, West Bengal. Statistical analysis including descriptivestatistics, ANOVA and linear regression analysis were done separately for males and femalesfor each lung function trait. The value of FVC and FEV1.0 reaches its peak within 25 years ofage and then gradually decreases in both sexes. Similarly, the FEV1.0/ FVC ratio decreasewith the increment of age in both sexes. The peak value of PEFR reaches between 25-34years of age in male, but in case of female the peak value of PEFR reaches between 35-44years of age. The ANOVA result showed that significant differences (P≤0.05) existsbetween/among age cohorts in terms of mean values of all the lung function traits for bothmales and females. The result of linear regression equation for lung function traits on agewere as follows: FVCmale=3.168–0.015×age, FVCfemale=2.214–0.012×age, FEV1.0male=3.119–0.021×age, FEV1.0female=2.111–0.013×age, FEV1.0/FVCmale=1.004–0.003×age,FEV1.0/FVCfemale=0.953+0.0006×age, PEFRmale=8.649–0.064×age, PEFRfemale=4.690–0.014×age. Therefore, it seems that lung function traits gradually decline with progressionof age and the pattern is similar in both sexes. However, generalization cannot be madeout of this small-scale study.